Album Review

Collide – Counting To Zero

• 16th Sep 2011

Collide are back, and its happy days.

This is probably the album I have had the most difficulty adjusting to, possibly in my life! On listening to their previous albums of Collide I could almost instantly pick out the highlights for myself. Some of the tracks were an instant “love at first listen” type of scenario. Like a voice pitched and tuned perfectly for your own ears, they felt like comfort beyond comfort where you could just close your eyes, sigh with relaxation, and know you are with something that was perfectly working in tandem with your own inner soul.

This time round it’s been a real nurturing process. And I don’t mean that to sound like the album is poor and I was just desperate to like it, more a case of the band really are making the audience participate further by listening more intently. I was of course worried that something had gone horribly wrong when I first listened to the album – although I knew I was doing two other things at once ads I was doing so – but the end I knew I had to give the album its due and listen closer. Turns out when you first fall in love with any art, it is conceivably going to be a different process when you return for more. First love is never the same and this is true of anything you attach yourself emotionally to.

My second journey through the album assured me that there was nothing particularly wrong with the album at all. I was worried though that the album perhaps lacked songs that leap out at you (as when you have your first listen), and that is probably what set off my alarm bells in the first place. This is undoubtedly a Collide album and a decent one at that. What we do have are several tracks that grow steadily with each listen.

The album starts with Bending and Floating which Collide fans may smirk at as they listen. Not only is it a very “Collide” type of title for a song, but it pretty much does what is on the tin. The music and vocals bend and float. This again is perhaps more reason to be suspicious upon your first listen as they play a song that will be very familiar to fans ears. It’s very graceful and pretty, yet it doesn’t offer us anything new to get too excited about, but enough to realise at least you are with friends you can trust. Lucky 13 takes a dark twist back to the burlesque of the likes of previous album Two-Headed Monster; and whilst it feels like a track that belongs on that album, it is a real treasure that sparkles with a naughty fairy-tale-esque quality. We then take a trip in more of a distorted feel in Mind Games which to be honest is a perfectly original song from the band; further stretching Statik’s sound engineering skills as a master of the sound art form.

Then we get what I consider to be a truly great tune from the album, In The Frequency. Quite how I missed it upon first listen can only condemn how half awake I must have been at the time of listening. This is where kaRIN really shines through and commands the audience with her soft and seductive chords.

Clearer keeps the music on the alternative side of industrial rock. For fans who dreamt of the merging of the likes of Kate Bush and NIN; then Collide is the dream to follow. We’ve had many bands that honour the likes of industrial rock blended with soothing voices: Curve probably were a band that did it to perfection and Collide have carried it off in their own direction. And here they broaden that spectrum further.

The tunes keep coming, and again the argument remains. The more I listen to this album the more I like what I hear. I am reminded of past glories. In fact if I had heard this album before any of Collide’s previous efforts I can safely say that I know I would have felt very much at home with a band who it felt to me like were making music just for my ears alone.

If I am to find a low point, I would say that towards the end of the album it does utilise perhaps a little bit too much of the techno-beat side of music and vocal interference that I sometimes find repellent. Beyond that criticism this album is not really going to let fans down. Some may find it a challenging listen, to who I would encourage to keep listening – as it only gets better.