No Hope In New Jersey's debut album
'Steady Diet Of Decline' is the debut album from Manchester's No Hope in New Jersey. The album gained it's spot on Atlantic records after the band had only played six shows that had rather impressed Atlantic's scouts. The band has been likened to such rock acts as Metallica and Fuguzi and has picked up a small following from their tour earlier in the year.
To follow up from their 7" 'Narcolepsy', the band have released 'Steady Diet of Decline', twelve tracks of what the band do best. They hope to catch the media's attention in an attempt to take-over the country with their style of ropey rock 'n' roll.
The album begins with a very old school-metal riff that seems 'half baked' compared to the traditional riff you'd usually find, compact with many notes. I would be brave enough to say that opening track 'Despair' is a very weak way to begin the album. Possibly because of the way the engineering of the sound has left the guitars and vocals a little disjointed. 'Bad Luck' certainly picks up where 'Decline' should have began.
The album has it's highs and lows, 'Narcolepsy' being a certain high with its structured choruses, whereas 'Sanitized Toilet Life' seems a little too long to bear. It's hard to describe the band's position in today's great sea of genres but it's certainly quite a specialist mainstream of indie-rock, the vocalist does seem a little unstressed in some parts which some may find terribly irritating.
I believe the band have some great potential with the way they write their songs. Some parts even surprisingly remind me of the Dandy Warhols. But the band's recording seems a little too green and the recording shows that they aren't prepared for such a big release on Atlantic.