Album of the Week

Acting as main support for Muse in 2004, Noisettes seemed to get a bad rep with over a hundred thousand music fans in the space of a fortnight simply for not comparing to the epic live show of Muse.

Whilst this is fair enough, the support slot did not act as the spring board it could/should of, and meant their debut album slipped largely under the radar. Yet it’s brilliant, and I implore you to check it out. However, the second album syndrome or sophomore slump is heightened following an a truly amazing debut so, how’d Noisettes do?

Well, they sort of pulled it off. Singles ‘Wild Young Hearts’ and ‘Don’t Upset the Rhythm’ are great, with the former sounding like it fell off the back of Rihanna’s bandwagon, and this is a good thing as it’s a great pop song, full stop. There are some other excellent moments on the album (see opener ‘Sometimes’ and old-school Noisettes ‘Atticus’), but from here you might as well be listening to Amy/Duffy/Adele etc. as the album sadly falls into the ubiquitous old-school-wall-of-sound-soul styling’s that everyone’s doing at the moment.

The songs are good, but not like the punk-rock experimental Noisettes of the debut, which is a shame. I consulted the liner notes for an explanation, and I did get a somewhat surprising one; 6 of the 11 tracks are co-writes with members of Orson (remember them?!) and Paulo Nutini’s (meh) songwriter. These co-writes hadn’t been mentioned in any press/interviews so I got onto their label boss Tim (at Transgressive Records) to find out just how much involvement the co-writes had in the songs;

“Yep, the band did co-write some tracks with other people - but rest assured they’re not just “playing other people’s songs”…. some of the tracks were written with others - it came about quite naturally, bands at same studios that kind of thing, but the heart of the Noisettes is in all of it… In terms of input; Dan, Shingai and Jamie are the majority writers on all of the co-writes”.

It just so happens that the 6 co-writes are the ones that sound furthest from Noisettes sound, but there we go. Don’t Upset the Rhythm, their first Top 40 single (entering at number two) was a co-write, so perhaps its what they needed to propel them into the mainstream. They’re a great little band though, but I recommend you check out the debut first and whether you like it or it’s not pop enough, the second album will satisfy at least some of your needs.

7/10

Out Now

Greg