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Glitterati, The - The Glitterati
Anyone who has been a regular visitor to this site over the last 12 months will know that I’m very proud of being from Leeds and equally proud of the achievements of anybody that’s from the city that has success in the music industry.
It’s not an easy industry to crack, for every band such as the Kaiser Chiefs who make it and make it big, there are hundreds of bedraggled, broken bands plying their trade in pubs year in year out with no more chance of success than I would if formed a band (don’t worry folks you can take your hands from your ears it isn’t gonna happen). Leeds as a city has been starved of musical success until recently, with its vibrant club life tending to take centre stage ahead of its bands.
You’ll also know if you are a regular visitor that I’ve sung the praises of a couple of The Glitterati singles that have been released in the last six months, not with a Leeds bias hat on, I just really liked the singles. So when they released the self titled debut album last month, I was genuinely looking forward to hearing it. The month or so that our site was down has given me more than enough time to play it and let the tracks grow on me before reviewing it….every cloud an all that.
So it’s disappointing that a month on I’m not getting on much better with it than I did on first listen. Taking the singles Heartbreaker, Do You Love Yourself and You Got Nothing On Me out of the equation it’s a rock-by-numbers effort from the boys who have set up shop in London in a successful attempt to kick start their careers.
Too many tracks like First Floor and You Need You offer so little imagination; trite, chunky guitar riffs and formulaic drum patterns do little to enhance a vocal that doesn’t stand out from the crowd if it hasn’t got the catchy chorus to pull it along.
- Glitterati, The
- The Glitterati (2005)
- Category: Album
- Label: Atlantic
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 26 Jun 2005
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesHere Comes a Close Up is marginally better; it still uses a similar formula but veers closer to a more powerful garage-rock edge.
Of the tracks that were new to me the best two in my opinion are Don’t Do Romance, which is far more reflective and a hell of a lot quieter than the bulk of tracks on here and the excellent closing ballad Keep Me Up All Night which is an out and out love song that would make an excellent single to get the band across to a wider audience.
For this band to move forward and find their own niche they are going to need to stick to doing what they do well, garage rock with a pop influenced chorus (You Got Nothing On Me) and the lighters out at the end of the night ballads (Keep Me Up All Night), then and only then will they start to look like offering some longevity to a career that could be over before they know it on the strength of this disappointing debut.
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