Saturday, August 15, 2009

Barricades Rise - You and Your Adored LP

Hear The Track Here

Not content with giving me a six track EP as an introduction to this UK band, here they are again with a full blown album. I kinda like the band's take on Alternative (with that UK twist) and thought at the time they were a band worth keeping an eye on, particularly if - like me - you like good songs. Blueprints (June 2008) was the name of the EP and its probably still available and still free. Come on, it's a small download, completely legal and - as I say - worthwhile. Although You and Your Adored isn't officially released until August 21st, it's on pre-order at the link above.

Support your local band, you know it makes sense.

Apparently, the EP was fuller in instrumentation than the band actually sounded so they turned around and recorded eleven tracks that caught their real live sound. What I liked about Blueprints most was the songs, and that - pretty much - is where the band have concentrated their energies this time round. This Creation (which kicks off the proceedings) is refreshingly acoustic, and when the vocal kicks in you get a definite Celtic feel that is amplified (as it were) in later passages. Excellent song and a great introduction to what Barricades Rise is all about. Aftermath (a free download single at the site) follows, and I see the wisdom in highlighting this track because it shows exactly why BR are different - this would definitely be a band to see live. Seeing as this is the object of the exercise, kudos all round. Sleepwalker turns in a really nifty near-ska rhythm that had me from the first riff. Like the previous two tracks, a wonderful song with some great hooks.

I'm not going to go through the whole album track by track because, well, it's a BIG f****** job innit? You wouldn't think a couple of geezers on acoustics could make music this complex and to be sure, I'm going to be a while picking the bones out of this LP. In at least a couple of tracks they show the kind of style that made early Oasis tracks so listenable, albeit in a totally convincing acoustic manner, and as songwriters they are streets ahead of most wannabes. Again and again as I listen through it I am struck by endless references to a great musical past while sounding fresh, lively and full of vision. As an older citizen of the UK I have to say that I have seen my share of great bands and wonderful songwriters and Barricades Rise and You and Your Adored are proof that the music is alive and in the rudest of health.

MUST HAVE alternative Acoustic. Excellent indie production.

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