Yes, I know, I’m behind the times. I have no idea why we haven’t reveiwed this before now (aside from the fact we were never sent a promo copy, ahem) but as I received this record for Christmas I figured it was about time we said a few words about it. There’s no need for me to tell you about The Blackout because unless you’ve lived under a rock you will have seen them supporting someone, on the radio, in the mainstream mags or even on MTV 2. To say they’re riding on the crest of a wave is a real understatement – these guys are surfing that wave and are one of the UK’s brightest hopes.
For a simple, crude comparison The Blackout sound like The Used jamming Lostprophets songs. There’s plenty of melody and plenty of screaming, the two different sounds juxtaposing really, really well. This album may not break new ground but it sounds huge and has plenty of massive choruses. And it has an arrogant swagger that really makes it stick out from the swathes of other bands who do the same kind of thing.
The gang vocals of ‘Tick Tick BOOM!’ get things off to a fantastic start, while ‘The Beijing Cocktail’ and ‘Prepare For A Wound’ are huge, huge songs as good as anything our US brothers are writing right now. It is, of course, ‘It’s High Tide Baby!’ which is the song which will send this band supernova and probably have all the girls across the world pinning posters of the boys on their walls. Featuring a guest performance from Ian Watkins of Lostprophets fame it’s the current single and a summer hit in waiting.
While The Blackout haven’t managed to write a genre classic they have managed to put out the best UK album of it’s type in quite some time. The hype, it would appear, is certainly justified.