Wednesday, August 12, 2009

REVIEW: NONSENSE IN THE DARK - FILTHY DUKES


Electronic

Filthy Dukes' debut album is hit and miss. It's probably best to get this out of the way as soon as possible so nobody is confused. There's a lot of potential here, and lot of missed opportunities, but don't let that ruin the great tracks on Nonsense In The Dark.

The album begins with the insanely catchy opener, This Rhythm, featuring the vocal talents of Late Of The Pier's Sam Eastgate. It's a really strong start that carries through the first four tracks on the album. Messages is the next big track, featuring jittery electronic beeps and sing-along-lyrics, definitely one of the highest points on the album. Then comes the fall. It all begins to break apart, only six tracks in, with Tupac Robot Club Rock. The cheesiness of the lyrics is only rivaled by their repetitiveness. The edge the faux-rap vocals attempts to add to the song only works against itself, and It ends up sounding a whole lot like a bad Groove Armada tribute song. Following directly is another track of note, Nonsense In The Dark, but its positioning within the album's continuity is its undoing. With a slow, expansive melody and the soft, down tempo vocal work of The Maccabees' Orlando Weeks, the title track seems like it would belong at the end of the LP, making it a really effective closer for the album instead of a jarring come-down from the "excitement" of Tupac Robot Club Rock.

And its downhill from there. The remaining tracks on the album just fail to get anywhere, whether it's the anti-climactic build up to nothingness in Cul-De-Sac, or the 80s soft rock inspired Don't Fall Softly. It really seems like Filthy Dukes used up all their great ideas early on and just had to make up the rest of the album that was left with waste from the cutting room floor.

So whether you can justify buying the whole album depends on what you want from this album. If you can tolerate the downplayed electro and frankly puzzling vocal choices that plagues the release; go for it. If you're looking for an record of indie-dance with catchy lyrics and even catchier beats you'll do well to just stick to the singles.

5/10

Download

Messages - Filthy Dukes


Myspace

No comments:

Post a Comment