A Strong, Mature Album From The Irish Quartet
Irish four piece The Rumour lashes out at the musical realm with an album which has slightly confused me. I say confused, because The Rumour is a band that you can't really pigeonhole into one specific category or another. On the surface they come across as an Arctic Monkeys style spice-boy quartet, but underneath that surface, if you scratch away the gold-leaf that's been plastered over this band's solid iron core, there are four guys who share a special musical gift and show that they can really compose and play music.
There's something about the cover to the album that strikes me. It's not as important as the music by any means, but as the cover is usually your first impression of an album I think it's important to look at it for a second and wonder if it's trying to say something. The cover is simple monochrome, blacks, greys and whites, and underneath the band name and the name of the album are four pairs of empty shoes. In front of those shoes is a massive puddle which reflects the shapes of the band members. I've not described the cover that well, but you get the gist. Is there something about the band that they feel only exists in their shadows? Do they have an image problem or some sort of insecurity about their appearance? I can't say for certain, but those shadows reflected in the bleak puddle remind me of the way The Ramones looked on their first album. But it's been inverted here, in a puddle slowly filling with rain. I can only speculate, but that inversion of image is exhibited all the way through the album's music. The lyrics to track on 'Cultured Individuals' couldn't state it more clearly; "This is the Street/ So why you walking like that/ This is not the cat walk/ If it all goes to plan/ In Paris, London or Milan/ and she's not the only one."
Each piece seems to be written in a mature and gifted manner, lyrics that are thoughtful and questioning and sounds that are not at all heavy, but strike you through the power of their delivery. Standout tracks from this album for me are 'Cultured Individuals,' 'Chivalry (is dead)' and 'Psycho' but to be honest, any and every song is highly listenable and, what an old friend of mine would call, "Indie-tastic." Certainly a strong base for the band to work from in the future and hopefully an album which means that The Rumour will only ever attempt to out-do themselves.