Bursting onto the “scene” in the summer of 2006, Hadouken! have pretty much been front and centre in the stakes of exciting new bands throughout most of 07/08. They’ve garnered a large fan-base on a certain social networking site and been (sort of) championed by the NME. But alas, the band have garnered the worrying title of being a “marmite” band, in which people either love or hate them. With that, they release their debut effort, Music For An Accelerated Culture, but does it stand up?
One thing that’s immediately noticeable is the inclusion of their previous singles, That Boy That Girl and Liquid Lives. While the former stands up to the 18 month period that it’s been available, the same can’t quite be said for Liquid Lives. Both have undergone a bit of spit polishing and while That Boy That Girl has stood the test of time, Liquid Lives seems to be a bit of a misfit in the second half of the album where it’s been placed. It doesn’t just doesn’t seem appropriate. Maybe this could have been rectified with an alternate track listing.
One of the new tracks is Game Over, upon listening to it, while it has a good groove to it despite pacing issues; it feels very similar to some of the band’s previous work, primarily Superstar and Do This Do That. The alarm bell rings. Is this a sign that Hadouken! have gone all formulaic on us? Yes and no. We come to Spend Your Life, while it has a listener dividing acoustic guitar in its midst (personally, I like it), the lyrics are sub-Alex Turner and clichéd at best and What She Did closely resembles a decent amalgamation of Declaration Of War and Liquid Lives.
One of the stand-out new tracks is Mister Misfortune. Strangely hypnotic synths and guitar riffs blend excellently into the worryingly anthemic chorus. Throughout listening to the track, it’s far too easy to imagine the hoards of people chanting along with James Smith. Unfortunately, following this is Crank It Up, a song which seems to pander to the web 2.0 generation by reeling off plenty of mindless technological terminology. It seems far too desperate for a band that is supposedly heralding a new wave of band/listener interaction.
2006, there was no variation in the singing styles, just the plain rapping that seemed to anger the Grime circuit. Now, if you told me that there would be ballads [sic] on the album, I wouldn’t have believed you. Alas, Driving Nowhere is a straightforward ballad, unlike anything else they’ve done, therein lies its appeal. Pure singing all the way through. Along side this is Wait For You, the most downbeat song and the album closer. Almost relying on drums and synths alone, it has the ability to almost put the listener into a trance, uniquely so. Its strangely hypnotic drums curiously taunt the listener, as if Timbaland has suddenly been roped in.
Although it’s not going to convert any haters, Hadouken! have produced an album that seems to manage the hype they garnered. Slightly disappointing in places, but when they get it right, you can almost hear the hoards of fans jumping about.
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