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Irish band Bell X1 are probably best known for being the ex-bandmates of
Damien Rice and, latterly, for being one of those semi-credible bands whose
tracks get chosen to punctuate key "dramatic" moments on US teen dramas (see
The O.C., One Tree Hill, etc.). Blue Lights On The Runway is their fourth
album. It manages to do neither less, nor much more
for their case than those two facts might suggest.
There's a definite whiff of the 1980s to this album. A few tracks
feature a noticeably retro synth riff or two, like enjoyably jaunty opener
The Ribs Of A Broken Umbrella and my favourite track of all, lead single The
Great Defector. They also sound as if they use a drum machine in places,
particularly on How Your Heart Is Wired.
There's quite a strange mix of styles going on here. Even a cursory
listen will reveal a marked resemblance, almost to the point of pastiche, to
Talking Heads in general, and David Byrne's vocals in particular, on a fair
few tracks. How Your Heart Is Wired has a backing that is in places very
reminiscent of the nice frantic-twinkly bits from the Heads' Same As It Ever
Was, for example; The Great Defector's features jaunty afrobeat rhythms and
Byrne-like vocals; and both A Better Band and One Stringed Harp also bring
more of the same influences very much to mind.
In other places they appear to be aiming more for what you might
call the KeaneSnowPatrolColdplay school of sensitive indie balladry. If
this is your bag, then I would direct you forthwith to the piano-led, and
nicely melancholic Blow Ins, or the (rather dull) Light Catches Your Face,
or gently elegiac closing track The Curtains Are Twitching. The success of
such tracks generally rides on the melody, and here Bell X1 get two
out of three pretty right.
Where they have occasionally got things quite gratingly wrong is
on the lyrical front, such as the description of being "stripped of his
skin / like the ribs of a broken umbrella / sticking out of a bin" in the
opening track, and the contrasting "him and her" or "you and I" couplets in
Breastfed (although I suspect they may have got this idea from The
Waterboys' Whole Of The Moon...): "You save yourself / I'm saved by the bell".
However, every now and then a description, phrase or metaphor is
thrown in that just jars - either because it sounds, frankly, contrived
("You're the chocolate at the end of my cornetto", from The Great Defector),
or because it's just plain charmless: "You're just picking your knickers
from your arse / Like you're playing a one-stringed harp", say, or "We're
all bulimic / But keep forgetting to puke" (both from the unlovely One
Stringed Harp).
It's a shame - they are clearly a literate and articulate
bunch, but the most arresting images from their songs are those just quoted,
rather than any of the more poetic, touching, apt or even amusing ones that
they are no doubt capable of producing.
It is hard, then, to give a neat summarising overview of this album as a
cohesive whole. But where it works, it has produced some fairly memorable
tracks that would likely do well both as singles and to soundtrack that next big teen love scene.
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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees
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