Getting Better All The Time
“Once bitten, twice shy”, that’s what they say and by jiminy, it’s true. Once bitten by the bitter sting of a less than impressive musical offering, you are far more reticent to retread old and most probably new, disappointing ground. But sometimes maybe you should run the risk of getting stung all over; sometimes, it just might be worth it.
Where as their debut album ‘Complications’ was a somewhat meandering exercise in music; all misguided in tone and with the vocals effectively ruining the delicate expanse of the music, the latest offering from Dead Letter Office is a far more direct one-two punch of a track. In fact, it sounds like a different band all together.
Produced by Gavin Monoghan, who has previously twiddled knobs for Editors, The Twang and Kings of Leon, his touch seems to have lifted quite a bland band into something far more palatable. By making the band sound more urgent and exciting by ramping up the speed and spiking their sound with energy and vigour, he has created something quite good here.
Although, this covers no new ground musically, or is doing anything profoundly noteworthy, it is a noticeable and accomplished change for the band and an impressive one at that.