British nu-metallers Lostprophets have released their new album Liberation Transmission.
Liberation Transmission
Visible Noise: 26 June 2006
The third album from Lostprophets
Ian Watkins: vocals
Mike Lewis: guitar
Lee Gaze: guitar
Stuart Richardson: bass
Jamie Oliver: vocals, mixing, keyboards
Ilan Rubin: drums
Having been moderately successful on their debut album, Fake Sound Of Progress and very successful on Start Something, the pressure's on for Liberation Transmission, "the soundtrack to liberating your life" according to guitarist Mike Lewis.
Never a great lyricist in the poetic mould, Ian Watkins deals with abstracts - monolithic choruses phrased around words that don't actually appear to mean that much. There are sweeping declarations of vindication and a common thread of victory that runs through this album: a kind of 'screw you, we did alright' flick of the Vs to detractors.
It's hard not to see where they're coming from - they're Britain's biggest hard rock band of the last few years, and are one of the few UK acts to have made serious inroads into America recently. But still there is - at least a perceived - bickering and sniping at them from the very area from which they came. Some of the lyrics appear explicit on this theme, but there's a musical and lyrical triumphalism that runs through all 12 tracks here.
And very effective it is too - as with first single Rooftops, Liberation Transmission works because there's a fists-in-the-air dynamic that carries the listener. Lostprophets have always dealt in cheap rock thrills, and it would be churlish to deny their effectiveness.
There are moments, such at the end of Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time) which recall slickly-produced Eighties rock titans such as Def Leppard at the same time as recalling modern rockers like My Chemical Romance - but still it's still discernably Lostprophets.
They've settled into their sound and while it's nowhere near as suprising on first listen as Start Something was, it's again packed full of singles (Broken Hearts, Torn Up Letters And The Story Of A Lonely Girl being an obvious choice), slow-burning epics (4am Forever, Always All Ways...) and very little filler.
This is a huge album given a huge sound and it's the key to Lostprophets becoming one of the biggest rock bands in the world. All the ingredients are there on Liberation Transmission.
Words: James McLaren
Songs on new album Liberation Transmission
Everday Combat
Town Called Hypocrisy
New Transmission
Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)
Can't Stop, Gotta Date With Hate
Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time)
Everybody's Screaming!!!
Broken Hearts, Torn Up letters And The Story Of A Lonely Girl
4:Am Forever
For All These Times Kid, For All These Times
Heaven For The Weather, Hell For The Company
Always All Ways (Apologies, Glances And Messed Up Chances)
news.bbc.co.uk
Liberation Transmission
Visible Noise: 26 June 2006
The third album from Lostprophets
Ian Watkins: vocals
Mike Lewis: guitar
Lee Gaze: guitar
Stuart Richardson: bass
Jamie Oliver: vocals, mixing, keyboards
Ilan Rubin: drums
Having been moderately successful on their debut album, Fake Sound Of Progress and very successful on Start Something, the pressure's on for Liberation Transmission, "the soundtrack to liberating your life" according to guitarist Mike Lewis.
Never a great lyricist in the poetic mould, Ian Watkins deals with abstracts - monolithic choruses phrased around words that don't actually appear to mean that much. There are sweeping declarations of vindication and a common thread of victory that runs through this album: a kind of 'screw you, we did alright' flick of the Vs to detractors.
It's hard not to see where they're coming from - they're Britain's biggest hard rock band of the last few years, and are one of the few UK acts to have made serious inroads into America recently. But still there is - at least a perceived - bickering and sniping at them from the very area from which they came. Some of the lyrics appear explicit on this theme, but there's a musical and lyrical triumphalism that runs through all 12 tracks here.
And very effective it is too - as with first single Rooftops, Liberation Transmission works because there's a fists-in-the-air dynamic that carries the listener. Lostprophets have always dealt in cheap rock thrills, and it would be churlish to deny their effectiveness.
There are moments, such at the end of Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time) which recall slickly-produced Eighties rock titans such as Def Leppard at the same time as recalling modern rockers like My Chemical Romance - but still it's still discernably Lostprophets.
They've settled into their sound and while it's nowhere near as suprising on first listen as Start Something was, it's again packed full of singles (Broken Hearts, Torn Up Letters And The Story Of A Lonely Girl being an obvious choice), slow-burning epics (4am Forever, Always All Ways...) and very little filler.
This is a huge album given a huge sound and it's the key to Lostprophets becoming one of the biggest rock bands in the world. All the ingredients are there on Liberation Transmission.
Words: James McLaren
Songs on new album Liberation Transmission
Everday Combat
Town Called Hypocrisy
New Transmission
Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)
Can't Stop, Gotta Date With Hate
Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time)
Everybody's Screaming!!!
Broken Hearts, Torn Up letters And The Story Of A Lonely Girl
4:Am Forever
For All These Times Kid, For All These Times
Heaven For The Weather, Hell For The Company
Always All Ways (Apologies, Glances And Messed Up Chances)
news.bbc.co.uk