Formed at Art College in Liverpool just two years ago, things have moved fast for The Open. Off the back of one single, the plaudits were out from the rabid rock hacks, desperately hunting the new Radiohead or Coldplay. One over-enthusiastic critic even described them as "the sound of the future".
On the basis of this backward looking debut album it’s a bold claim. Similarly, lazy comparisons with The Verve’s maelstrom of swirling psychedelic rock are way off the mark. The Doves, pre-bleep Radiohead, and a dash of 80s alternative pop that just manages to fight off their proggish tendencies are all identifiable in these ten emotionally wrought tracks. It would be unfair to claim though that The Open are musical thieves, this is a sound almost all their own. Sadly, at its best “The Silent Hours” is a robust, reasonably straight ahead rock record and at its worst, a lumpen, forgettable distraction.
Recent single “Just Want To Live” is certainly a radio friendly anthem, atmospheric keyboards, hushed guitars, building to the lighters aloft chorus while singer Stephen Bayley cries his broken heart out. Similarly the dynamic, shifting, “Close My Eyes” is shot through with a refreshingly cocksure confidence.
What soon becomes clear, though, is that this is a record caught between two opposing schools of rock. Should it pursue elongated reverberating walls of guitars or concentrate its attentions on producing hooky pop-rock anthems. As a result it does neither particularly well. Throughout, “The Silent Hours” is hampered by cliched lyrics which struggle to hold the weight of the songs: “When do we stop coming down?/ I’m scared of being left behind”, Bayley wails on, yes, you guessed it, “Coming Down”.
A competent, assured debut then, but only if The Open work out exactly what sort of rock band they want to be will they fully realise that ‘sound of the future’ tag.
