Finally, the debut LP from Cardiff's alt-rock supergroup arrives.
Too Pure: 24 September 2007
Last updated: 20 November 2008
And, suddenly, it's over.
Tracklisting
- The Lord Hates A Coward
- Plague Of Onces
- Fingers Become Thumbs!
- Manchasm
- F*ck The Countryside Alliance
- My Gymnastic Past
- Suddenly It's A Folk Song
- Kept By Bees
- Small Bones Small Bodies
- Wrigley Scott
- Real Men Hunt In Packs
- Team:Seed
- adeadenemy alwayssmellsgood
- The Contrarian
Where did the last 37 minutes go? Future Of The Left's debut album has shot by in 14 short, sharp shocks of comedic but acidic phlegm and bile.
Future Of The Left's two great frontmen (Mclusky's Andy Falkous and Jarcrew's Kelson Mathias) and metronomic, powerful drummer Jack Egglestone, have delivered one of the most effective albums of the year.
From the bass guitar thrum of The Lord Hates A Coward to the closing piano tragicomedy of The Contrarian, it's nothing less than involving and entertaining.
The music is largely a grind of sinewy guitar, kept taut by a rigorous approach to structure. Future Of The Left seem to have arrived at a very hi-fi brand of lo-fi, from the slouching, shuffling slow march of F*ck The Countryside Alliance to the screwed-up singalong of Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood.
There's the kinetic, gasping rock of Small Bones Small Bodies and the fuzzy, melodic Wrigley Scott, and the always intelligent, inventive lyrics of Falkous. Essentially, this is the tightest, most concise work that the three band members have yet committed to tape.
Words: James McLaren
