In a way it’s a great shame Cartel are not bigger than they are. ‘Chroma’ is a fantastic debut album, one of those records that every song is a winner. I still listen to it often even now, it’s one of those records that I can associate with the lyrics and sing along with Will and appreciate every word. What happened between the recording of that album and the recording of the self-titled will remain a mystery. Why the band thought recording an album based on the ‘band in a bubble’ gimmick for MTV would ever work is a mystery. Instead it totally backfired – the record received bad reviews all round and the idea of opening themselves up to new fans tanked. They’d gone from one of the brightest bands around to zeroes in the blink of MTV’s eye.
‘Cycles’ is that difficult third album. If it tanks the band’s chances of mainstream success are finished. But then if it’s anywhere near as good as ‘Chroma’ it’s wide open again. The truth is that ‘Cycles’ is far, far superior to the abomination that was the S/T, but it’s not a patch on ‘Chroma’. It sounds more like the first record than the second, but it still sounds a little watered down. The album starts with songs that fill you full of hope. ‘Let’s Go’ has a huge chorus reminiscent of the better songs from that first album, while ‘The Perfect Mistake’ is crunchy with a huge guitar riff. The chorus is huge too. So far, so good.
It’s therefore a shame this record doesn’t again live up to those two tracks. ‘Faster Ride’ is pretty good, but does sound a little bit derivative, while ’27 Steps’ is really, really catchy. But there are a few songs here that will leave you lunging for the skip button. There’s a middle section which is really average, songs that do little for me – ‘Only You’ and ‘It Still Remains‘ have me skipping every time, the latter actually reminds me of Simple Plan. Urgh.
I really wanted to love this album. I really did. But the simple fact is, it’s a good album, not a great one. There are some fantastic individual songs, but as a collective it doesn’t quite hit the spot. ‘Cycles’ is much better than ‘S/T’, but not as good as ‘Chroma’. It’s like the band knew what they needed to do, but couldn’t quite hit the spot. I’d still recommend this album to those who like the genre and to those who loved ‘Chroma’ because there are a couple of great songs here that deserve to be heard. But I’m left a little disappointed overall.