The Art of Saying Nothing,
Imperial LeisureImperial Leisure are quite a sight to behold. A ten-strong unit from North London, they play a mix of ska, reggae, rap-metal and a fair amount of everything in between. ‘The Art of Saying Nothing’ is their debut effort, and it’s one hell of an ambitious one, although with ten members, you wouldn’t expect them to do things by halves.
First off, let me say there are some absolutely cracking songs on here. Opener ‘Untouchable’ drops in with one hell of a beat, and rhymes as true as it rocks. With a cracking chant of ‘This place makes my heart bump/when I feel low this lifts me up” throughout, it lays good groundwork for what’s to follow. Elsewhere, ‘In this Letter’ is just begging you to windmill, while ‘The Great British Summertime’ is one of those songs that is so intricately layered, it’s like a new song on every listen.
As I said, there are some astonishing tracks here. The problem that I have with this record, is that in between the party anthems, and the radio-friendly unit shifters, it’s severely lacking. ‘The Beast’ falls far short of the mark, it’s pretty forgettable to be honest, while at times, songs like ‘Jenny’ and ‘Beer Belly’ can be downright irritating. There’s a good six tracks on here that are just don’t show this band off as well as they could. At times, it certainly seems to be the case that too many hands and too many ideas have left the bands initial ideas muddled.
I enjoy this band, I really do but there’s a real sense of ‘could-do-better’ when it comes to this record. In parts, it’s outstanding and when Imperial Leisure get it right, they’re do so in a way that should leave Sonic Boom Six shaking in their boots. Unfortunately though, there’s just a little too much filler on ‘The Art of Saying Nothing’, which leaves it being a good record, instead of a great one.
Andy R
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