Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 22/05/06
Label: Dance To The Radio

How far can you stretch an idea before it becomes a gimmick? When we were first presented with the concept of ¡Forward, Russia!, it all seemed very alluring - the upside down Spanish exclamation mark; the Soviet retro futurism; the sense that this was a band designed by politburo rather than a bunch of kids from the local youth centre; the taut, overwhelmingly serious guitar lines played almost in homage to the likes of Joy Division and early U2; the high-pitched, again utterly serious vocals, squealing like a matter of life or death was nigh; and, of course, the numbers instead of song titles. As an aesthetic package, ¡Forward, Russia! felt perfect.

But presented with the full-length album, a few nagging doubts appear. First off, being faced with a tracklisting of numbers - the opening stretch is "Twelve", "Thirteen", "Fifteen Part One", "Nine", "Nineteen", "Seventeen" - somehow robs the record of emotional depth. You almost feel that if the band can't be bothered to name the songs, then they can't really mean anything. Numbers are cold and inhumane, after all - often used to disguise or smother humanity rather than encompass it. So maybe this is simply a conceit. Just another gimmick designed to grab attention.

That they've named the album doesn't help either. So the record deserves a proper name, but the songs don't? Why not? Either all in or not at all, surely? Add to that the fact that the lyrics are often rendered incomprehensible due to the impassioned delivery, and when you do manage to snatch the odd phrase it's usually bordering on gibberish (All together now: "We can all change our tegument's function / Replace the outer shell with something more neoteric" - from "Thirteen"), and you start to wonder if this is all just one grand sixth form folly.

But! Look down there at the score - eight out of ten. How can this be? Simple: despite all of the pitfalls and pretentious missteps, ¡Forward, Russia! can still write a blistering tune when they feel like it. Which, on evidence of this album, appears to be most of the time. Like Editors et al, they draw upon the glacial post punk influences such as Joy Division and Gang Of Four, but unlike them they also chuck a bundle of other elements into the mix as well - sludgy heavy metal guitars on "Fifteen Part One", a sweeping sense of gothic romance on "Nineteen", bubbling electronics scattered throughout.

It could all be a terrible mess, but they pull it together brilliantly, edging just close enough to cacophony to elicit a sudden visceral thrill before settling into a meaty, compelling post punk riff. By the end the album storms to a close with - what else? "Eleven", you feel as if you've been kidnapped, exposed to all sorts of extreme pleasures and then dumped back in the street again, dazed but dazzled. Whether they burn themselves out or manage the leap up to true magnificence is yet to be seen. But we're definitely along for the ride. ¡Onwards!

    by Ian Watson