Gareth - 11/22/2011

The boys from Staines are back with their third offering 'Killer Sounds', and as reviews in the NME and the independent appear to agree with me, giving themselves a hill to climb from the get go and a lot to live up to. Although the album name was not intended to mean that these are killer sounds but the fact that whilst on tour, singer Richard Archer met a man, I believe, in South America, who acquired guns from local criminals and made them into guitars and liked the idea of turning something negative to a positive.

Hard-Fi burst onto the scene in 2005 with the debut album 'Stars of CCTV' which boasted such singles as 'Cash Machine', 'Hard to beat' and Better Do Better'. Many articles state that the follow up album to this, 'Once Upon A Time In The West' released in 2007, failed to live up to expectations and that the albums front cover was to play in the albums failing. However, how can a number one album be considered to have failed to interest the music buying public or fail to have connected with the already existing Hard-Fi fan base. I would definitely consider a number one album a success and the album cover to be a stroke of genius, as it was released in the midst of the itunes era the 'No cover art' album cover could not have been conceived and released at a more appropriate time. 'Once Upon A Time in The West' included the singles 'Can't Get Along (without you), 'I Shall Overcome' and 'Suburban Knights'. Hard-Fi are a true British band, who lyrically reflects their surroundings. Hard-Fi tracks recall to the mind inner city urban, and suburban landscapes and reflect the lives of real people through their soundscapes and social commentary, both musically and lyrically, which the mass working class can then relate to.

This then, the third album from Hard-Fi, like its predecessor has evolved from the album previous. It definitely has the Hard Fi sound musically, although it has more of a dance feel than both of the other two albums on most tracks, which Richard Archer, the lead singer, has previously stated, and has heavily influenced the band. However lyrically this album is nowhere near as strong as the previous two albums, there isn't much of that Hard-Fi social commentary that people can relate to; it's far more generic, less inspiring and less interesting in its wording, which is a big fall down.

The first single from the album 'Good for Nothing' is what you have come to expect from the band. The second track is also a strong number with a dance vibe to the music called 'Fire in the House'. In fact the first four songs of the album start off reasonably strongly. However the album falls down on track five, 'Feels Good'. Lyrically, I would say this song is poor, with the rhyming of such words as brain, cocaine and propane, lyrically it appears to have become stuck in the 70's, this sort of song writing really is desperate and I really think and the band should have really thought about skipping this track and leaving the album as a 10 track offering. Even the music can't save this track, with its Indian vibe, it just really adds to the cheesiness of this track. Track eleven, the title track 'Killer Sounds' slows the finish of the album down to a more acoustic offering much like the title and last track of their first album 'Stars of CCTV'. This track seems to find the old Hard-Fi alive and well, back with their social observations as to why the youth generation behave in the ways they do, tackling the issues of youth culture, peers dying young and the ways in which to vent their frustrations. Maybe a few more tracks like this one dispersed amongst the dance tracks would perhaps have worked a little better. The song 'Sweat' on first listen appeared to be about STI's, with lines such as 'Sweat.I gotta get myself checked", which I thought all very good and brave of Hard-Fi tackling yet another growing problem in this country, however the song is far less interesting and seems to be about having to sweat to earn money? Oh. There are some real anthems on the album; ones which I am sure will be live favourites that really get the hard core Hard-Fi fans going crazy for more.

All in all a good album, however this will not reach the success of the first two albums from the band. However I personally think this album is a grower, I was very unsure at first but over a month on, I believe it to be a very strong and catchy album. The ever evolving Hard-Fi are one of the few bands that have managed to change their sound a little more with each offering but ultimately stay within their original genre. Some bands never change and become a little boring, such as Oasis and others change too much, but Hard-Fi have always stayed firmly within that British indie rock genre but bring or integrate something new, weather that's in the form of scratching, loops or beats, which keeps them on the edge and gently pushing boundaries in a good way.