Yo ‘WHY?’ I’m real happy for ya and I’ma let you finish….. BUT Tubelord’s ‘Our First American Friends’ is the best late contender for album of the year 2009.
Released on 12th October the Kingston (London) quartet’s offering showcases angular guitar hooks, vocals which meander effortlessly from harmony to cacophony, and a determination to keep song structures interesting and varied. Add a couple of recurring themes to the mix and you’ve got yourself a group who understand the craft of writing an album as opposed to a collection of songs.
Tubelord bravely draw on less fashionable post-hardcore acts from the turn of the millennium. Think Piebald crossed with And None of Them Knew They Were Robots, with big The Get Up Kids style harmonies.
One slight criticism that I have is with the placement of tracks. The first half of the album flies past while the second half comes across as more contemplative in tone. While this in itself is a nice idea the effect is that the album does lose a little momentum on first listen. However, as the songs become more familiar this undoubtedly becomes less and less of a negative feature.
While ‘Our New American Frie’ may not quite make enough of a late surge to claim my highly coveted ‘Album of the Year’ gong it wins ‘Top Debut Album of 2009’, hands down.
