Wow.
I remember a few years ago when Andy told me about Kids In Glass Houses and I think from then on the PT staff have just about loved everything the band has ever done. ‘Smart Casual’ was brilliant and full of anthems, while the band’s live show is one of the best, if not the best, on the UK circuit. I had high hopes for ‘Dirt’ and that often leads to disappointment. But there was no way even I could have hoped for an album that was this good. It just takes everything from the first album and makes it better. The songs are better, the choruses are bigger, the sound is fuller – this is the sound of a band comfortable in their own skin, having found their sound. And boy, how good is that sound?
‘Dirt’ is an absolute monster of an album. It sounds huge. Pretty much every single song is a potential single. Aled has never sounded better, hitting notes that most vocalists could only dream of. Singles ‘Matters At All’ and ‘Young Blood’ are huge, huge hits, while ‘Hunt The Haunted’, which was given away as a free download, has become one of my favourite KIGH songs. While the band do their patented pop-rock thing really well, it’s the variety that makes this album so damn good. Opener ‘Artbreaker I’ sounds like Lostprophets with energy and exuberance in abundance, while ‘Lilli Rose’ and ‘The Morning Afterlife’ are slower and more considered, without falling into ballad territory. Tell the truth I prefer the band when they’re a bit quicker, but you cannot deny the album as a whole works better with a quick chance to catch your breath.
Full marks go to Romesh Dodangoda and Jason Perry for their work in putting this together as the band sound bigger and better than ever. The layers of instrumentation make this album what it is – there’s piano, strings, electro elements and brass. ‘For Better Or Hearse’, which sounds like The Rocket Summer on steroids, has finger clicks, trumpets and handclaps. If you looked up ‘joy’ in the dictionary they’d probably just play you this song. The record even features guest vocals by Frankie Sandford of The Saturdays on ‘Undercover Lover’, which incidentally I find to be one of the weaker songs. It just doesn’t quite flow as it should and while it’s still very catchy, it’s not the band at their best. I couldn’t write this review without mentioning the excellent ‘Sunshine‘ or ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ either, as both tracks are, yeah you guessed it, massive.
I toyed with giving this 4.5 or 5 and opted in the end for full marks. True, there’s one or two songs I’m not that keen on, but this is such a huge step up from the first album that I had to reflect that in the score. If there’s any justice, this will be the album where the world sits up and takes notice. It will take something pretty special to shift this from my album of the year – and it’s only Feb/March.