Athlete want to be Coldplay all of a sudden. There, it's been said. There's no point in skirting round the point any longer.
This is not a criticism, nor is it high praise but they might as well have emerged through the "Stars In Their Eyes" smoke to open their biggest homecoming show to date. And we shouldn’t be surprised. Anyone who's picked up Athlete’s largely enjoyable (in a depressing kind of way) second album "Tourist" knows it sounds reminiscent of Chris Martin and co. Grandiose, epic and all those things that make cash tills ring and concerts sell-out but something just doesn’t feel right.
For one, the most interesting thing about tonight is that so many people are into tracks from their underrated debut "Vehicles And Animals". Maybe its down to retrospective discovery but it begs the question - where were you all a few years back? Maybe Athlete weren’t going so far wrong and, with a bit more support when they were scratching round for fans, who knows what intriguing delights they might be producing now.
But times were hard, sales were slow and cynics amongst you might smell a commercial rethink. The result is that Athlete are caught between two albums and two styles – their jerky and unpredictable former selves against the more palatable, introspective current incarnation. It spells trouble. There’s the serene almost morose likes of “Grace” and “Twenty Four Hours” back to back with the bouncy “Westside” and the almost flippant but wonderful “El Salvador”. To yearn or not to yearn, that’s appears to be the difficult question. Add in the fact they are still getting to grips with the newer songs which tend to be plodding and laboured over and you have a recipe for a frustrating evening.
Mercifully, "Wires" is the exception. It’s Athlete getting the mix right between what they are good at and what they clearly aspire to. It’s truly magnificent. Aside from that, and a thermin solo (always a winner), their ambitions to scale some kind of meaningful heights are cruelly undermined. Athlete should be confident, they’ve earned the right to be. They should do themselves a favour and heed the refrain of “Shake Those Windows” - “just let yourself go”.
