The Music
Welcome To The North

THE REVIEW

Expected at their second test after the reassuring self-titled debut, the four very young musicians from Leeds confirm what they did in their debut. Psychedelia+hard rock+ballads reduced to a minimum= The Music. Yes, indeed, these are the ingredients of one of the most interesting bands to emerge from the British music scene in recent years. With a singer as unwatchable as he is talented (and I assure you, he's really unwatchable...), the band, in this album, nods to several bands, such as Mars Volta, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Verve from "A Storm In Heaven," and Jane's Addiction (compare Robert Harvey's stunning voice with Perry Farrell's to believe it...).

The leading single, "Freedom Fighters," convinces at first listen, with a delightful snare/hi-hat play at the beginning (which recurs throughout the track) introducing us to a rather hard, psychedelic, and engaging rock. A beautifully "effect-laden" solo adds that extra touch of class and technique to a track that would otherwise have definitely been below the album average.
In "Bleed From Within," the guitars are hard, acid, distorted, the voice splendid and in great shape as always, the bass not very virtuosic but crucial to the structure of the song. All this is completed by the inclusion of some typically "Afro" instruments like percussion and bongos (which can also be found in the rest of the album) and which add that extra touch of cheerfulness to an album with much less dark tones than its predecessor. "Breakin" is perhaps the best episode and encapsulates all the essence of The Music. Four minutes of pure Jane's Addiction/Led Zeppelin-style rock that adds nothing new to the style of the British quartet, but confirms that at the very young age of 20, you can make technical albums (but not too much) without tiring the listener.
"Fight The Feeling" is the only track that slightly breaks the rhythm of the entire album. A very simple ballad, with minimal drum parts, and a delicate and very light guitar arpeggio in the background, showing The Music in a rather dark version, in full debut-album style, as are the "Into The Night," where the band's intimacy emerges at the top. Traces of Verve-style pop-rock in "Guide," with an almost always steady rhythm and easy listening.
"Cessation" and "I Need Love" have rhythms, like "Freedom Fighters," quite "danceable," whose strength is surely the live performance. The band indeed delivers a decidedly excellent live performance, both for the instrumental part (definitely high-level) and the vocal part (equally exceptional). These two characteristics can also be found in the studio recordings, where the band seems to have the exact same flair as in their live performances.

One of the countless (but best) bands with "The" does not churn out, as now seems customary, a banal rock'n'roll-clone album, but puts forth a mature album, above the average of the records produced in recent times, with a perhaps less psychedelic sound than the first but more sunny (in the music, but not in the lyrics). Inferior but perhaps more complete than the first work, an album that makes us understand how even at 20, you can produce decidedly mature, complete albums without particular flaws or weaknesses.

"I love this mess

It makes me feel

Throughout my life

You are my guide"