HERE COMES THE FLASHOVERRRRRRRRRRRRR

Surfing the Void - Klaxons - Album Review

Apperances can be deceiving. As I said not so long ago in this blog (when I was complaing about The Strokes being over-rated), the last decade saw the emergence of shite indie, made by scruffy looking sorts who play boring music and need a good scrub. One such band, on appearance, was Klaxons, who the NME started wanking furiously over when they burst on to the scene in 2007. Klaxons went slightly beyond the boring blueprint that was circulating at that time, adding an edgier electronic sound to their music, labelled by many as "New Rave." This difference in what they got described as somehow managed to give them less credability however, and it seems to be to their benefit that they no longer use it as an adjective for their music. Certainly, the fact that they've grown out of sounding like music made by 14 year olds that think they're cool because they watch Skins helps this.

While the aforementioned NME jizzfest certainly included elements of Rave, the follow-up holds back on them slightly.There's an edgier sound present, which isn't in fact what they had originally created. They were made to re-record parts of it, as their label deemed it "too experimental." When you consider one such song was called "Marble Fields and the Hydrolight Head of Delusion," you can see why. You can be thankful for it as well, as rather than do what MGMT did earlier this year and create something that sounds like Stonehenge by Spinal Tap, Klaxons have produced an album that you can actually listen to without being stoned out of your tits.
It's a fairly short album at 38 minutes, and it does suffer from this as you're listening to it. It creates a certain feel of the album being rushed, as if the band want it to be over and done with before it even gets into any sort of rhythm. As a result of this, while there are very good songs present, when you go from the slower Twin Flames to the utterly deranged yet brilliant Flashover, you get no feeling of continuity. It doesn't feel like an album, and for that it's poorer. The only saving grace for it is that the songs are very good, so you'll want to play it over and over to actually get a feel for them. At least it doesn't suffer from the same problem as Myths of the Near Future, where you had the best song by a mile opening then have a closer that had a hidden track present after a full 15 minutes of silence.
All in all, Surfing the Void is better than I thought it'd be. And aside from the moments of brilliance that are present in the likes of Echoes, Flashover and Valley of the Calm Trees, Surfing the Void is definately in the running for album art of the year. That and i'm hating their image less and less each time, so it can't be that bad.
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Tomorrow, you'll get The Illusion of Safety by The Hoosiers