Streets In The Sky – The Enemy

Year Released: 2012

Label: Cooking Vinyl, eOne Music

Year Bought: 2012

Coming onto the scene at the end of the 00s indie boom, the Enemy quickly turned into a critical punching bag.

I always felt that was a bit unfair, as I thought their 2007 debut album was pretty great for what it was – straight down the line kitchen sink dramas told through boisterous melodies supported by no-frills indie-rock guitars.

I bought this album in 2012 from a market stall, but never actually listened to it. For years I thought it was their second album, but that was a record called 'Music For The People' which completely passed me by.

Anyway, this album sets off at a breakneck pace and pretty much stays there.

Whereas the first album seemed to have something to say, this just feels like a not-as-good retread of the same territory.

It is a bit full on. All the guitars sound the same, which are often too Bonehead and not enough Noel, and it's all very one tempo. As a result, the songs all mesh into one wall of noise.

The vocal delivery is all very shouty and not always easy on the ears.

Some of the reviews from the time are brutal – see this from The Quietus:

Turn and tilt your head for a moment while The Enemy are playing and a splat of something revolting falls out of your ear, apologises, squirms away and out the door squeaking. This is what happens when you reheat vomit, when the coprophage feeds from the coprophage.

A lot of the hostility seems to come from the fact that the singer gave some interviews ahead of the album saying no one makes good albums anymore and music on the radio is shit. Plus ca change.

A review aggregator website calculated this as the worst album of 2012, although I'm sure Tulisa's album 'The Female Boss' wasn't better than this.

Ok, it's not great. To be honest, it's not even very good. But there are worse musical crimes than those committed by the Enemy and I'm not sure it's worth getting that upset about. Have you listened to the use-me-in-an-electric-car-advert shite Coldplay have been putting out recently? And they should know better. The Enemy are just doing the best with what they have.

Still, I won't be listening to it again.

2/10

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