Reviewed by:
raoulruby, on august 25, 2008
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Sound: In 2006 The Automatic came into the public eye with a huge hit, this hit titled 'Monster' seems to have been both a blessing and a curse, a blessing as without it the band would not have had such early brilliant success in their career, and a curse as it seemed unlikely the band would ever be able to live up to the hit single, and one of the biggest sounds of 2006, however with new record This Is A Fix they have. The four musicians have created a far more diverse sound to this record, with the more pop side of things in the form of a hugely catchy and undoubtedly future single track titled 'Magazines', whilst 'In The Mountains' uses a simple but strangely effective synth line which upholds the bands original feel from their début album, but also shows a far different side of the band. The likes of 'Accessories' and 'Sleepwalking' have brilliant fast paced guitar hooks, whilst the melodic and peaceful 'This Ship' seems to burst in and out with fantastic split vocals from former Yourcodenameis:milo singer Paul Mullen and original member Rob Hawkins, whose voice has become far stronger since the days of Not Accepted Anywhere. 'Steve McQueen' the lead single shows one of the heavier tracks of the album, whilst being heavier it also has a hugely catchy chorus, in a similar way title track 'This Is A Fix', whilst not exactly a catchy song, is huge, and although being nothing like it, works very much in a similar way to 'By My Side' from their first album, being a more dark and uncompromising track, with later tracks in the album such as 'Make The Mistakes' has great single potential also, leading into what has a sort of TV end credit feel, track 'Light Entertainment'. // 9
Lyrics and Singing: "I'm sick of government warnings telling me to watch my intake", the opening line of the record, on boozed up track 'Responsible Citizen', it almost feels like the anti-monster in a sense, the drunken track slams straight into 'Steve McQueen', which feels like a transition track between their first and second albums, being written in early 2007 the track refers to McQueens legendary film The Great Escape, and how the boys seem to want escape, a theme almost to popular during the début album. 'Magazines' as already said is amazingly catchy with brilliant lyrics seemingly referring to the media in our lives, the hole album upholds a certain espionage theme to it, with references to the government, war, and the secrets surrounding them, the themes of the album are well varied, compared to a lot of the bands writing love song after love song The Automatic seem to have a lot more to talk about, and do so in sheer brilliance. // 8
Impression: The first record was always criticised for having a samey sound to it, both lyrically and musically, this time around The Automatic have produced something which is so diverse, which holds onto you for the whole 43 minutes, with catchy chorus' and hard hitting guitars, if you want an answer to whether they have lived up to Monster, then yes they have, they've come back with something that is better than anyone could of possibly foreseen. This Is A Fix is released on Polydor records on August 25th 2008. // 8
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