Thank you for The Music
Rapidly establishing themselves as one of the most important, if not the most important act to come out of Britain in recent years, The Music deliver their second full-length, ‘Welcome To The North’, to rapturous praise and critical acclaim, as well as chart success. Their debut saw them impressing all the people that mattered in music, critics and scenesters alike, and gave the band the foundations on which they’d have to laboriously build to achieve the heights they were deserving of. And when a job needs doing, The Music do it well.
‘Welcome To the North’ sets the standard that new British music should be working towards in 2004. It defines the sound of the year and the sound of the future, The Music are pushing the bar forward when so many others seem to be stuck or are too scared to move into new territory. Welcome to the North, welcome to the evolution of rock music, welcome to one of the best albums of the year.
Combining the potent parts of Led Zeppelin’s guitaristry, with U2’s atmospheric Edge and Britpop’s best bits, their style is the meeting of the heavy audacity of Reef and Ocean Colour Scene with the psychedelic swirl of The Stone Roses and Supergrass, producing awesome consequences. Rob Harvey’s vocals mesmerise the mind as Adam Nutter’s guitar stimulates the soul. Coleman’s bass and Jordan’s drums are responsible for keeping your feet on the ground with rhythm and precision to ensure no injuries as your head floats off into space.
The album’s good from start to finish, it would make a boring-looking bar graph, but the songs sustain a consistency that’s never dull. New single ‘Freedom Fighters’ stands out as outstanding, chosen for position of number 2 in the running order. The following track ‘Bleed from Within’ incorporates so many of the ingredients a song needs to be classified a classic, it would be sacrilegious not to.
And then there’s ‘Breakin’’ a spasming ball of energy with one of the most fun choruses for a long long while. Certainly another candidate for a single release. Every track is in equal in standard, your finger will never twitch to skip.
The Music have set the mark, now the rest of the music has to compete.