Album Review

The Electric City – Dark Skies

• 7th Mar 2008

Rock has usually hit the dancefloor with a bit of a dull thump. The Nineties in particular saw a flood of crossovers, while stadium bands like U2 and Depeche Mode dabbled from opposite directions.

Heavy guitar and synth can make strange bedfellows. The solution seems to lie in going flamboyantly industrial (as per Rammstein), lightening up and getting all post-punk-funky (viz The Rapture) or just knuckling down over the years and making it work (à la New Order).

Somewhere between the poles of macho metal and camp disco, you’ll find The Electric City. If it were a real place instead of a band, it would be littered with Duran Duran albums and populated by the mutant lovechildren of Trent Reznor and Michael Hutchence.

Dark Skies is the tight trousered younger brother of big hair rock that could almost have been lifted from the soundtrack of a straight-to-video flick. Aiming for the arena but a bit low on juice, it ends up like Muse without the slickness and bombast. An uninspired single and the obligatory press release photo of band-against-a-brick-wall doesn’t help shift the feeling that it has all been done before and better.