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Album Review
by Donald von Vliet
8-4-2003
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| Athlete: 'Vehicles & Animals' coverart |
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Athlete: 'Vehicles & Animals'
(Parlophone)
Athlete: fitness of suburban spot-jogging
Let me stop laughing, first of all. The Athlete’s debut album, ‘Vehicles & Animals’, has caused a whole array of opinions: from “originality” to ”gravely amiss” to “utter cack”. Such a display of ‘passion’? Eh, the power of hype… ‘V&A’ is not really anything of the opposites but an average album by a rather ordinary band with a limited musical vocabulary. Not bad but if this is the future of Brit-indie…
‘Vehicles & Animals’ is full of radio-friendly tunes (‘Westside’, ‘El Salvador’) that bob along like a castrated pop-rock it is; the only song that shows an appetite to rise above the mire is – ‘New Project’ (demonstrating this lot is capable of rocking-out); ok, ‘One Million’ is promising as well that makes you wonder – why don’t you do more of these kind of songs? Instead the majority of non-committed, limp, pretend-rock drivel… Simply too polite, too meek, too bloody suburban.
Joel Pott, the lead singer of the band, approves of Chris Martin’s way and trades in second-hand (charity shop’s mainly) chic, just to show they are one-of-us. Well, if you are in a band, you ain’t like the rest of us due to, hopefully, your (and mates’) realisation of talent for music making. But then, it could be an escapist route from the confines of whatever alternative life’s had planned for them. (Long distance trucking?) If their approach is de-idolising the rock world, we don’t need that but more heroes to show us the light at the end of a very long tunnel called – mediocrity.
Each band can easily have its influences triangulated and this time we have Steely Dan, Pavement and Coldplay; the trouble is that Athlete often end up sounding like either The Beta Band or, even worse, Gomez. What’s with the Brit-bands and general obsession with the West Coast? You can’t do it; your background is lack of sunshine, sand and hardly-dressed babes of the LA/Calif. land. This quartet, from the Rolling Stones’ place of origin, Deptford, has spent a year creating this album; pity the time… ‘V&A’ is an artefact that is like gym running: you are on a treadmill, distance is clocking, calories are burning but you ain’t getting no place.
The only thing that should be applauded is that the band doesn’t go for romanticism in its lyrics but concerns itself with more of urban living and early adulthood issues. Everyone goes through the phase... Then, their name is bothersome: why Athlete – when their only exercise is beer-bottle lifting and a marathon of skinning up (this is a conjecture but who isn’t?) – is not clear to us. Probably it is meant to intrigue us… As (if)instructed by the album’s title I played it to my car and my dog; the battery instantly ran flat and the dog ran to the back of the garden and dug itself under the shed!
Could this be a replacement band for all the Toploader fans who are heartbroken by their recent split? My only concern is how far can I throw this crappy disc?
Athlete’s ‘Vehicles & Animals’ is as average is as any Wednesday.
5/10
Donald von Vliet
8-4-2003
Athlete’s ’Vehicles & Animals’ is released 07 April 2003 by Parlophone
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