Album Review

The Whip – X Marks Destination

• 17th Mar 2008

How long have The Whip been around for? How old are they? Where is that treasure map? All questions that won’t be answered but perhaps should be.

The Whip are, of course, in the Metronomy/ LCD Soundsystem/ Simian Mobile Disco part of the musical spectrum and there’s been a hell of a lot of that electronic stuff in the past couple of years.

The problem with building a myspace fan base and then not releasing an album is that others hear your stuff, nick it and get the glory.

You have to feel sorry for The Whip because whilst their thunder’s been stolen by countless inferior merchants, their tunes are incredible. ‘Frustration’ is New Order in their prime, ‘Divebomb’ is almost Justice equalling and ‘Trash’ is pure sleaze but Bruce Carter lacks the charisma of a James Murphy and at times sounds like a sober, concentrating Shane McGowan.

While pretty much every track on this record undoubtedly makes you want to dance (which is, after all, what they set out to do) it all just feels a little dated. If only they’d have got round to releasing this earlier (‘Frustration’ was out more than 2 years ago) then it could have had the impact that it deserved.