One of the more interesting developments in alternative music in recent years is the rise of ‘workingman’s punk’, which takes punk rock, strips it of the anarchist & leftist ethos, and replaces it with a working class attitude, as well as removing some of the more over-the-top elements. So can there be such a thing as ‘workingman’s indie’? Coming somewhere around there are The Futureheads with their latest, The Chaos, as it eschews indie-rock’s sometimes over-complicated nature for a more straightforward sound, without veering into pop-punk.
Sunderland, U.K.’s Futureheads broke through in 2004 with their self-titled debut and songs like "First Day" and "Decent Days and Nights", but 2006 follow-up News and Tributes got a little over-ambitious/complicated (depending on where you stand on the record). After being dropped from label 679 and founding their own, Nui, 2008’s This Is Not the World (QRO review) was something of a ‘return to (less complicated) form’. Keeping up the pace of a record every even year, The Chaos stands somewhere in between News and World – and the band is still best when they’re simpler.
Not ‘simple’, as their core indie-rock procession is singular and interesting, even when repeated, like the similarly energetic "Struck Dumb" & "I Can Do That". And the band can also shift the sound around, from the darker "Sun Goes Down" to the more emotional single "Heartbeat Song", which is catchy without being over-catchy. The staccato rhythm can get a little too stop/start at times, such as with "This Is the Life", but it is certainly The Futureheads’.
Along with early piece "Stop the Noise", the back half of The Chaos is where the band gets more ambitious, more complicated, and more away from their strengths. The up-rock portions of "The Baron" and less staccato, more hook times to "Dart At the Map" are both good, but aren’t mixed well with the ‘regular’ staccato moments in the back-to-back songs. It’s like the band wants to try out some new things, but can’t keep from having a foot in their comfort zone as well (though they do go out there with some a-cappella on the hidden material after closer "Jupiter" – why do bands, in this iTunes age, still do the ‘silence, then bonus’ in the final track, forcing the listener to either fast-forward or "Skip To the End" [a News single]? Just have a silent track(s) that we can all delete on our iTunes after uploading…).
While The Futureheads remain on their own Nui in the U.K., The Chaos comes out on their fourth-in-as-many-records label Dovecote in the U.S. (and they’re playing a record release party tonight at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg, with labelmates/fellow record release partiers Hooray For Earth – QRO event listing), and they’re not a ‘settled’ band, in case the title of The Chaos didn’t let you know. But the Sunderland outfit is working on it & a ‘workingman’s indie’.
MP3 Stream: "Heartbeat Song"
