The Neutrinos - Sick Love

Tue 29th Mar, 2005 in Music Reviews

With a versatile sound similar to the likes of Garbage, Bjork and PJ Harvey,  The Neutrinos are a six piece outfit from Norfolk in the UK, who have a very rocking debut album on their hands. Beginning in their earlier days as a three piece band back in ‘88, The Neutrinos are: Karen – vocals; Lee – drums; Mark – guitar, vocals; Jon – Bass; Simon – drums; and Greig – guitar. This debut release Sick Love is an album piled with songs that are all intriguing in their own right. While there is a main course theme of love gone wrong mixed with the side dishes of hate and revenge, each song sounds very different and manages to keep the listener anticipating what is to be next?

The opening track Handsome Beast has such a strong PJ Harvey resemblance that it can’t helped but be liked. “What would it take for me to be your handsome beast?” The vocals from Karen are very powerful and the music supports this by being just as vigorous and hard hitting. Nearing the end of this song Mark comes in speaking with Karen still singing over the top. This creates an argumentative stance for the listener which definitely heightens the songs meaning and makes it more interesting. “Do you suppose that we could love like animals, could we love?”

If you’re familiar with the sound of local Aussie Jess McAvoy then you will know what to expect with the song Girl With Three Names. The similarities are obvious with both having powerfully melodic vocals on top of acoustic and very bassy guitaring. The main difference is the band tend to hold a bit more attitude with their lyrics.

“I’ll breed and army of liars and losers,
and sweet mother killers,
and bastards and bruises,
with no names.”

The songs appears to strongly reflect the issues of adoption and abortion as well the neglected result of moving from family to family in search of a home and trying to fit in. Towards the end of the song the vocals hold a feeling of bitterness and mixed emotions providing an ambience that these issues are close to the hearts of this band. This song is definitely among the best on the album.

The song Murder is a sad reflection of the many stereotypical realities and expectation of selves “in this world”. “You gotta sell your own soul to get some beg in your bowl, in this world.” The lyrics leave no room for messing around and are definitely straight to the point and makes you consider what is being said. “You gotta go under the knife to get some love in your life, in this world.” Like the theme of the album, Murder notably lacks any positive outlooks on life, but understanding the fact that life can be hard at times has a way of making you feel not alone.

Soft, lingering music and whispering relentless vocals which lead into high pitched harmonics is how the meaning of the song Ugly is presented. “Picked up a magazine and thought ugly thoughts, picked up a pen and wrote ugly words.” The use of down paced music and vocals creates and atmosphere of detachment and a sense of many overwhelming adversities without any triumphs. “Is it just the state of mind, or do we live in an ugly world?”

The general trend of band’s lyrics is to provide examples and beckon questions (often rhetorical) to get the listener really thinking. The songs are not made to be listened to once because with each listen a different train of thought can be encouraged. The band have made it clear with Sick Love that they don’t wanna sing or write about the good love in the world but rather they want to acknowledge the prominence of all the bad love. They want us to see what they see as reflective in the words from Ugly, “Caught my reflection in the mirror again, it made me wonder if you saw what I saw?”

Karen’s immense range of vocals on the album is a strong selling point with the soft melodic vocals of Sell Your Skin to the upbeat pounding in Blood Red Lips and Here To You being nothing to the contrary. The title track Sick Love is lyrically possibly the saddest and harshest song on the album. Karen’s vocals have a disgusted tinge to them almost to the point where you’re waiting for her to spit in your face through the speakers. “You hurt a little girl… how could you?” The song holds a realness that makes you want to empty a dozen boxes of tissues. “Sick love tortured me with it, forced me to live it, fucked me inside and outside.”

All the songs on this album are unquestionably inspiring with lyrical and vocal greatness ranging from speaking and harmonies to an occasional screaming and urgency of words. The music accompanying the vocals might be fairly simple but nevertheless it manages to compliment the vocals effectively. Sick Love is a journey that will have you thinking while encouraging the formation of tears in the back of your eye. With a secret song on the end of the album that is well worth the wait, this album is a tremendous step for the band and hopefully not the last.