And the award for most disappointing follow up of the year award goes to, sadly, Cartel. I absolutely adore ‘Chroma’, it’s just one of those sickly sweet perfect pop-punk records that strikes a chord very early and that resonnates among tens of thousands of music lovers. Will Pugh’s vocals were fantastic, the lyrics hit home and the choruses were nailed on every track. Rightfully the band’s stock rose and they ended up signing to a major.
But this is clearly where it’s all gone wrong. Derided for turning to MTV’s Band in a Bubble reality show, Cartel have clearly tried too hard to match ‘Chroma’s’ poppy songwriting traits. As a result, many of the songs here are easily forgotten; too frail and forgettable to last too long. ‘I Will Hide Myself Away’, for example, sounds a bit like Savage Garden. It’s just too disposable.
And I don’t want to write this review, believe me, because up to now I class myself as a big Cartel fan. There are some saving moments here – ‘Lose It’ is fun and ‘Tonight’ is really catchy – but the longer this album goes on the more fluffy it gets. It’s almost like the band ran out of ideas and resorted to writing pop songs more akin for the pages of Sugar than Rock Sound. ‘The Fortunate’ sounds like a Bon Jovi song at first, desperately trying to regain some oomph, ‘Georgia’ drifts a bit aimlessly, while ‘Radioheadish’ sounds nothing like Thom Yorke and co.
Ultimately this record is a real disappointment. I class myself as a fan and they’ve got nowhere near the high standards they set on ‘Chroma’ or ‘The Ransom EP’. Too many bland tracks should have been left on the cutting room floor – report card says C- – must try harder.