Austrian alt-rockers return with epic songs for nearly-magnificent seventh opus
8/10
There is something oddly perverse about discovering that Naked Lunch's new album starts with a track called Keep It Hardcore - I half-expected a homage to the early '90s, the days of standing in the middle of an Essex field, hands-to-the-lazers, necking doves, getting on one matey and gurning like a fish to the latest rave-anthems that resembled mating Hoovers. Or a homage to porn. Either way, whatever Hardcore these guys are singing about, Naked Lunch have succeeded in launching album number seven with an absolute belter. My attention is gained.
In fact, All Is Fever is, for the most part, an accomplished long-player that comes from a band now in its twenty-second year, comes from Austria and has remained an unknown quantity in the UK. Initially a hard-rock band and go-to support act for the likes of grungers Screaming Trees, as well as the centre of attention of one Kevin Shields, they now tread a rather more high-brow path and sound not unlike The National or Arcade Fire if they were European. An air of sobriety lingers throughout the album, with dreamlike melancholia at large on the likes of Shine On and Dreaming Hiroshima, the latter a hymnal cousin to John Foxx's Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Naked Lunch are perhaps at their peak on the more upbeat numbers, such as the punchy My Lonely Boy, The Sun and 41. In any parallel universe, these songs might be hits or, at the very least, radio-favourites. Oliver Welter's wavering vocals don't detract from the band's keen efforts, with pretty much all but a few songs successfully hitting the target, with regards to songwriting chops. Perhaps the two songs that will test your stiff upper lip's ability to stay stiff are the closing pair of Over It and The Funeral, both revealing stories about death. Best to scroll back to the first eight songs, methinks.
8/10
In fact, All Is Fever is, for the most part, an accomplished long-player that comes from a band now in its twenty-second year, comes from Austria and has remained an unknown quantity in the UK. Initially a hard-rock band and go-to support act for the likes of grungers Screaming Trees, as well as the centre of attention of one Kevin Shields, they now tread a rather more high-brow path and sound not unlike The National or Arcade Fire if they were European. An air of sobriety lingers throughout the album, with dreamlike melancholia at large on the likes of Shine On and Dreaming Hiroshima, the latter a hymnal cousin to John Foxx's Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Naked Lunch are perhaps at their peak on the more upbeat numbers, such as the punchy My Lonely Boy, The Sun and 41. In any parallel universe, these songs might be hits or, at the very least, radio-favourites. Oliver Welter's wavering vocals don't detract from the band's keen efforts, with pretty much all but a few songs successfully hitting the target, with regards to songwriting chops. Perhaps the two songs that will test your stiff upper lip's ability to stay stiff are the closing pair of Over It and The Funeral, both revealing stories about death. Best to scroll back to the first eight songs, methinks.