They’re songs infused with bite and bile, quite ridiculous, very bombastic – and let’s make this point one more time – utterly, utterly thrilling.
If Beck gets better as he gets madder, this is definitely his best since ‘Midnite Vultures’ – maybe even since ‘Odelay’.
It remains a challenge to crack their ice-cool exterior, to really feel things as they feel – but does that matter? The Strokes are, and have always been, a band that looks great at arm’s length – and consequently, ‘First Impressions Of Earth’ remains, in the best way, untouchable: the first – indeed, maybe the last – word in New York City cool.
Muse have made a ridiculous, overblown, ambitious and utterly brilliant album, with more thrills than their previous three put together.
Though they’ve shed the cheap – but undeniably fun – Day-Glo immediacy of ‘Fever…’, it’s been replaced by a range of expressions that most artists will only stumble upon by their fifth release.
Essentially this is a stripped-down, punk rock record with every touchstone of Great British Music covered