The Music - Welcome tothe North

Thu 11th Nov, 2004 in Music Reviews

The follow up to The Music’s critically acclaimed self-titled debut, Welcome To The North is an album which unfortunately suffers from what is technically known as second album syndrome. Their debut garnered so much praise that NME crowned them band of the millennium; well not quite, but they certainly lauded them, and everyone knows that when NME starts to blow smoke up your arse your looking at a meteoric rise in units sold and attendance at gigs.

The problem is that, as with most bands in their situation, they have been unable to fire as consistently on their second album. On The Music there was no filler, on Welcome To The North it feels like half the album is the stuff that didn’t cut it for their debut.

The thing I noticed most when I was comparing the two albums is the difference in production. It almost seems that The Music have lost some of their grittiness on this album; the sound is a lot glossier. Where on The Music the sound was bass heavy and unrefined, on Welcome To The North the sound is almost treble heavy, and when I compared the albums on my dad’s kick arse Bose system, the sub didn’t seem to work as hard.

The album commences with the title track Welcome to the North which begins with waahed out guitars and synths, and where you’d have expected a bass heavy barrage on the debut, there just isn’t that intense rumble which just made the songs meaty and gave them a sense of aggression. The bass guitars seem to have been mixed down in favour of, at some points, an Eastern guitar sound.

The thing I loved so much about their debut was the contrast between Rob Harvey’s high vocals, and the dark grittiness of the band’s guitar sound; its just not here as much. By messing with that formula they’ve taken out the most important elements of what made The Music so compelling.

Whilst this occurs on some tracks, songs like Bleed From Within work with the familiar sound from their debut and work in new elements, such as that Eastern influence and a more melodic song structure. If they were trying to change the way their songs are structured they have only been successful on a few songs. This track has that aggression and intensity, that you can just feed off and is really great song. But from here you then move to Breakin’ which begins almost like a bubblegum pop song and has a fifteen second chorus which I’m sure some clever ad exec will pick up to sell something ridiculous.

From here the whole album seems to pale, Cessation tends towards a sappy emo rant, with its whining chorus and lack of hard guitars. Fight the Feeling sees the band tracing a radically different path – a ballad. It’s very calming and serene and has sent me to sleep a few times in the last week when I’ve needed a nanna nap, yet I don’t know how this will fit with their live show and seems a tad out of place. The album then continues on in a similar fashion, neither breaking new ground, nor being terribly impressive.

The second album is a difficult task, but I think The Music have tried to eschew their greatest asset on this album, which was their rawness and the contrast between instrumentation and vocals. There is not doubt that Welcome To The North is a well-produced album, but that high quality production detracts from, rather than enhancing, this album. If you told me you wanted to buy an album by The Music I would recommend their debut, head and shoulders over Welcome to the North.