ALBUM REVIEW: The Outline - You Smash It, We'll Build Around It.
- Posted on June 18, 2008 2:49 PM
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Review By Ben Crouch
The Outline’s first full-length, You Smash It, We’ll Build Around It, is a pleasant departure from your standard drainpipe-wearing Arctic Monkeys wannabe’s. Sure, the influences from contemporaries like The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs and even Placebo are there, but the band brings an epic, experimental approach to a solid bed of rock and roll that is unique and impressive.
The opener builds slowly from echoing guitars set against an electronic beat to gigantic chords, thundering drums and even choral arrangements, with Graham Fink’s aggressive, bitter vocals tearing through the layers of guitars and synth. No sooner has the dust settled than the band’s rockier side opens up, with Life Or Life-Like’s stomping drums and catchy, upbeat nature belied by acidic lines such as ‘Pretty when your mouth is shut’ and ‘Here’s a whore who can sing, and folks are frantic / to touch as much as a piece of her string / how romantic’.
Heaviest track Death To Our Enemies (We’ll Make ‘Em Sorry) ups the ante again with a dirty bassline and powerful chorus, after which Why We’re Better Now’s slower, sprawling nature seems like a welcome relief. This is the band at their most epic; piano and processed vocal interludes set against thumping guitars, with Fink screaming ‘We all stare / but it’s not there’ plaintively to the heavens.
From here, The Outline’s experimental side loses a little ground, with catchy, rock-oriented tunes like Shotgun and Perfect For the Plain sounding a little more familiar and the swirling synth often giving way to more conventional rock and roll piano. Things don’t ever bog down entirely though, and to its’ credit You Smash It... features a lot of variety without ever losing its’ unique sound, predominately due to catchy hooks and Fink’s strong vocal performance across the album.
The only major blemish is the final track, a bizarre pantomime opera that, while initially entertaining, is too jarring to sit comfortably with the rest of the album and actually almost ends up overshadowing it. It’ll be interesting to see whether the band builds on their experimental side or moves closer to their contemporaries in search of future radio hits.
Rating: 4/5
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