Originally posted on Bebo, 30/8/09
Carrying on from last week's anti-producer rant, we are brought to Athlete, a band on their 4th album. Their first two being produced be.... someone and while both having flashes of brilliance, being nothing better than "Athlete song? Oh yeah they done that Wires thing that was on a few tv adverts." Wires was not one of the best flashes of brilliance from these albums, but anyway. Moving on from the success of second album Tourist, thier only number one album, they decided to self-produce the follow-up, Beyond the Neighbourhood. And low and behold, it was fantastic! Managed to get on to my top 5 albums of 2007 list, in at number 4 if I recall correctly. Unfortunately, I was one of the veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery few who thought this way. In an effort to rectify this, they brought in some unknown scrub to produce Black Swan, although a quick wiki search tells me he has produced both James Blunt albums. Not the best CV a guy could ask for.....
In what could only be described as a way to get monies again after BTN bombed, Black Swan appears to have got Radio 1 in pate form and smeared it all over the CD and thrown it out in the hope it sells. There's influence (ripping off) of Keane, Snow Patrol, Coldplay and that knobend producer has the good ole James Blunt acoustic guitars.... and the combination results in something that sounds like a production from the music department in 1984. If you opened a can from your cupboard that said "Bland, modern indie-synth pop," then Black Swan would be inside it. I've heard it 5 or 6 times since I got it yesterday and not one song from it sticks out in my mind. It's a horrible turn for a band that promised so much after BTN but rather than stick to their strengths, they sold out. Which is never a good thing, and it shows here.
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