I've Never Liked Reviewing Music

But here I am, reviewing an album. To tell you the truth, I never USED to like reviewing music, but this is kinda fun, so I might do this more in the future. Anyway I decided to review the album by Tom Bown's new band, Mute. I'll get straight into it:

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It's not quite right to say that Mute only have one sound, but it feels like they will constantly be mining the same sonic vein well into the future -- Mute always feel familiar, although the group spends some palpable energy weaving together the two sides of their personality that they borrowed from their main influences, being Foo Fighters and Fall Out Boy. Here, on their debut LP 'Take Shape', Mute gently slide from side to side, easing from delicate fingerpicked folk (including "Apatura," an instrumental duet between Tom Bown and guitarist Luke Pickering) to the surging, muscular hard rockers that will be the group's modern rock radio signature. Take Shape never lingers too long in either camp, as it's sequenced with a savvy professionalism that only debut rockers have. That sense of craft is evident in all the songs, whether it's the subtly sly suite of the opening "Bullet" -- after a slow build, it crashes into a crushing riff into a chorus, building to a typically insistent chorus before taking a slightly surprising bluesy boogie detour on the bridge -- or the sweet melodic folk-rock "Worlds Apart," a song as warm and hazy as an August evening. "The Escape" is one of the unassailable highlights here, and all the rest of the truly memorable tunes on Take Shape share its same, strong melodic bent, particularly "Pennyword," a wide-open, colorful anthem that feels as if it's been resurrected from a late-'70s AOR playlist. These songs place the melody at the forefront and also have a lighter feel than the rockers, which are now suffering from a dogged sobriety. For whatever reason, Tom Bown has chosen to funnel all of his humor out of Mute's music and into their videos or into his myriad side projects, like his blog. When it comes to his own band, he plays it too straight, as almost every rocker on Take Shape -- with the notable exception of "Gee Whiz!," a song that has a riff as nimble as those on the Foo Fighters debut -- is clenched and closed-off, sounding tight and powerful but falling far short of being invigorating. They sound a little labored, especially when compared to the almost effortlessly engaging melodies of the softer songs, the cuts that feel different than the now overly familiar Mute signature sound. And since those cavernous, accomplished rockers are so towering, they wind up overshadowing everything else on Take Shape, which may ultimately be the reason why each Mute album will feel kind of the same: Bown and his band have grown subtly in other areas, but they haven't pushed sounds that came from their influences; they've only recycled it. Since this is a sound that's somber, not frivolous, Mute can sometimes feel like a bit of a chore if they lean too heavily in one direction -- as they do here, where despite the conscious blend of acoustic and electric tunes, the rockers weigh down Take Shape more than they should, enough to make this seem like just another Foo Fighters album instead of the consolidation of strengths that it was intended to be.

3/5

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And there you have it! Hope you enjoyed the review, I believe I'll do more in the future.

See you next time

Lachlan

THIS WEEK'S CRAPPY BAND - FOO FIGHTERS

Foo Fighters are a band of incredible musical pedigree, however fall short in their music in every single way, pushing the musical boundaries to the point of radio friendly aging rock, while influencing a whole new breed of bands coming out today who can only aspire to the mediocrity that Foo Fighters have set as their example.