Album Review

The Hearing – And Somewhere A Light Goes Out

• 2nd Feb 2008

Watch out The Enemy because Coventry’s spawned another musical monster and this one can easily kick your not too adventurous ass I can tell you! And for those of you out there who wonder just what is you get when you cross Explosions In The Sky with At the Drive-In well, wonder no more. There are fleeting glimpses of Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Verve, New Order, Killers, Radiohead, Interpol, Neds Atomic Dustbin and early James throughout, but I feel okay about the tag I’ve chosen to attach!

Despite some much needed vocal input, the erratic percussion here, escalating tempo there and the slinky guitar work in-between all add up to a raucous rollicking rollercoaster ride of an LP. The structures are shape-shifting soundscapes that leave you guessing over and over as to just where they might end up next. The key to all of this is the sheer unpredictability of the energy and direction that these guys channel into their songs and bearing in mind that this is a debut from an as yet undiscovered band, well, as I said all that time ago at the intro, watch this space folks!

And what’s this? They’ve also received a blessing from 1 Steve La(big)mac who described them as being “a bit special, really”. Well. I’ll take my shiny new discovery and…