A.Human Fail To Build On Early Promise
Retro electro rockers A.Human recently released the excellent single ‘Black Moon’, perhaps one of the best efforts so far this year from the genre. As a result hopes were pretty high that full length album ‘Third Hand Prophecy’ would be at least as good as the early taster. Sadly it fails to live up to expectations; but isn’t a total wash out.
Let’s start with obvious standout ‘Black Moon’. Put simply it’s fantastic; a really tough, dirty synth led electro rock brute and you’ll be all the better for adding it to your collection you can trust me on that one. As for the rest of it? Well like I said before it’s not quite of the same standard. Lead singer Dave Human (why? Dave why?) sort of morphs from testosterone filled musical battle axe into an effeminate, prancing, almost operatic-esque crooner and it just doesn’t seem to work as well. Think of Dave Gahan at his edgiest suddenly deciding he’d like to sound a little more like Marc Almond and you’ll get the idea. The instrumental work also suffers from the shift in tact, the brooding menace of ‘Black Moon’ soon turns into a parody of Shreikback (remember them!) with the oddball lunacy of ‘Post Post Modern Anxiety Blues’ a particularly unpalatable offender. Things get worse on the next track a heave inducing cover of ‘Horse With No Name’ which will have the original writer Neil Young at best permanently crippled with hysterical laughter.
I’d be doing the band a disservice however if I made out that this was all poor. ‘Bedsit On Fire’ might not be the best constructed song in the world but it’s been written to a very high standard, with the group displaying a particularly wicked sense of humour throughout. The vocal free ambiance on display on ‘Why Do I Try’ after the ludicrous opening 40 second intro at least, is another you’ll probably want to revisit.
How depressing though that a band with so much initial promise fail to deliver on a full length effort. It’s happened before it’ll happen again, but to go from the strength and promise of ‘Black Moon’ to some of the real horrors on display throughout ‘Third Hand Prophecy’ is grossly disappointing. Still hope is not lost because if you manage to buckle down for the ride and last it out till the final number ‘Sun Will Rise’ you’ll be rewarded with a reminder that this band have potential and can actually make some bloody good music.