The Automatic – Steve McQueen

• 17th Aug 2008

So, the Automatic are back and they have replaced keyboardist Pennie with Paul Mullen from Yourcodenameis:milo. Personally, while Pennie had a lot to offer with regards to the band’s live shows, musically he is nothing special and therefore easily replaceable.

‘Steve McQueen’ sees the band stay away from some of the vapid offerings of the first album, such as ‘Monster’ and ‘Recover’, sharing more with the better album tracks (including the undervalued ‘By My Side’) which rarely saw the light of day beyond live performances.

This new single suggests that sophomore album ‘This Is a Fix’ will show more of the promise hinted at by ‘Raoul’ which was not developed satisfactorily on the band’s debut. Hopefully The Automatic are willing to continue producing eminently listenable indie tracks this time, rather than taking the easy option of the big commercial chorus.