★★
After listening to Dartz' debut album, This Is My Ship, I was excited to hear new material which I expected to be full of their captivating rhythms and danceable beats. By taking a 'interesting' concept and deciding that rather than 'working on the music first and then, once that was sorted, work on the lyrics', instead 'try and write some music which suited the lyrics' the Teeside boys have produced a rather disappointed follow-up.
Opening with a melancholic guitar intro we are suddenly hit with the harsh, galling voice of, lead singer, Philip Maughan belting out the incredibly annoying line “we're marching” several times too many. Though well suited to earlier material, Philip Maughan's nerdy, blunt vocals oppose the melancholic atmosphere of The Sad History..., as he struggles to adapt his voice to the bands new sound and instead becomes weak, dreary and, during high notes, unstable.
After welcoming us to Alnerique with The Arrival, Building Alnerique and its genuinely interesting, jirky drum beat, the band provide Oskar and Ofelia with its Southern American twang to the guitar and bass and relaxed drums, proving that despite the struggle with vocal adaptation, they successfully adjust to varying music styles; also shown on calm acoustic instrumental What Happens to Places Where Spaces Should Be.
However the band seem to fail producing more creativity than their previous work, as the intro to third track, A New Venture from Mordecai & Sons vocal melody sounds almost identical to that of track four, The Clandestine Chair. A New Venture... also begins with what seems to be a hollowed out Foals guitar harmony followed by a blatant copy of Los Campesinos!'s You! Me! Dancing! main riff for the verse. The Lay of the Land follows suit with an intro echoing that of Razor by Foo Fighters, though does in fact flourish into one of the albums best songs, partly due to the fact that its style is more akin to that of the first. Embers, is similarly reputable, due to it providing an interesting array of sounds including a ukulele and saxophone. This makes it another relaxing, admirable instrumental.
The End, Moving On concludes this hit and miss record, with further acoustic splendour and charming guitar harmonious, tainted again by strained, uncomfortable vocals.
To summarise, Dartz have produced a pretty disappointing second album, which shows that although artists such Smashing Pumpkins and Bloc Party can change styles with relative skill and ease, it can be very unprofitable to try it half-heartedly and while seemingly lacking confidence.
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