Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 19/06/06
Label: B-Unique

The first thing to tell you about The Automatic's debut album is that virtually every idea on here - all the good ones, at least - are stolen from a band called Jarcrew. They didn't have to look too far afield for inspiration. Jarcrew are from the Welsh town of Ammanford. The Automatic are from Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan. The distance is less than 50 miles.

You can't fault their taste, mind. Jarcrew were an awesome band, trading in arty punk-funk delivered with Fugazi-like militancy. A couple of years back they released "Paris And The New Math", a single of such staggering brilliance that, by law, they had to immediately split up. To the Jarcrew formula The Automatic have added strong, poppy melodies and big choruses - and excised the more avant-garde meanderings. By these means they've landed a deal with Kaiser Chiefs' label and colonised drive-time radio with their big anthem "Monster", a song about being bullied by drunken townies (remind you of anyone?). These days, if you've got a couple of massive singalongs nobody cares if the rest of the album's rubbish - just look how well The Killers have done - and for The Automatic, this is probably convenient. Of which, more later.

The Automatic's big problem is that lead singer Rob Hawkins has a boringly conventional, grunge-toned voice - similar voices can be heard on every rock record released on an American major label in 1992 - but they've come up with a novel solution: to every track - their deranged keyboardist Alex Pennie adds backing vocals in an unwavering, heavily-processed bark that rides over the top of Hawkins' voice on the chorus. With the likes of "Recover", "Team Drama" and (the best one) "Raoul", this tactic works a treat. Pennie's contribution gives the band its distinctive sound, and he's the reason they're not at this moment playing a tiny pub in Northampton.

However, Pennie is also responsible for much of "Not Accepted Anywhere" having a decidedly same-y feel. That band-name is intended to refer to the 'automatic' school-work-death treadmill, but could equally refer to their material's sonic uniformity. Sadly, the quality of the songs is not so uniform, and this album contains, in addition to some great choruses, some apocalyptically dreadful stuff. An example would be "You Shout You Shout You Shout", seemingly an attempt to sound like Fear Factory. But "Rats" is most worrying, particularly since they've chosen to close the album with it. Awash with teen angst and horribly strained vocals, it's dire and leaves you wondering if The Automatic are just a re-branded nu-metal band. Honestly, they should stick to ripping off Jarcrew.

What's that you say? Jarcrew have reformed? Well then: let battle commence.

    by Niall O'Keeffe