Album Review

The Answering Machine – Lifeline

• 22nd Feb 2011

Sometimes a band sits in between genres making it hard to pigeonhole exactly what they are about. The Answering Machine do not sound like your average ‘Indie’ band, they are certainly not a ’rock’ band and to say they make ‘pop’ music would probably be stretching the truth a little. Not exactly ‘shoe gazers’ either, the Answering Machine describe themselves as ‘Musically eclectic, textural and complex’ – Still none the wiser then.

Well after listening to ‘Lifeline’ – the Manchester based band’s second album, you would still be hard pressed to find an answer. There’s nothing spectacular about the musical element of the album, a lot of it is repetitive, in fact if you were to listen to the whole album from start to finish it would be hard to know where one song stops and the next one starts. The album was produced by front man ‘Martin Colclough’ and the self-indulgence is evident throughout – They like it so they are sticking to it.

It is easy(ish) listening in places but put the CD on and you will soon get bored by about song 4. Which is a shame as song 4 (‘3 Miles‘) is probably the highlight of the album. Recent single and title track ‘Lifeline’ offers little to get excited about – you just feel it is lacking a spark and you will undoubtedly find yourself reaching for the ’skip’ button.

‘So Alive’ could not be more of a misleading title if it tried. It just sounds like everything that has gone before it and everything that’s still to come on the album. And so we come to ‘The End’, slightly differing if only for the fact it has a female lead vocal but the lack of any change in musical direction is disappointing.

There will be worse albums made this year but unfortunately for The Answering Machine, there will be far far better as well.