Music : Red

Rating: - Disappointing follow-up
I love Through The Window Pane to the point that it is probably the most overplayed album I own, but something has just gone a little bit wrong with Red. Kriss Kross is a nice track, as is Get Over It but there are some really clunkers as well, Big Dog is just rubbish and Words isn't much better. They've lost the whimsical edge that made the debut so charming, and replaced it with dodgy 80's style production and an over-reliance on funny noises. It really pains me to say it, but this is a huge letdown from a band who are capable of so much more.

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Rating: - A grower
I hate to be cliched, but this is an album that really deserves the appellation 'a grower'. Its frankly baffling mixture of styles is downright difficult to deal with on first listen. It's like browsing through a plethora of radio stations - a meaningless collection of noise punctuated by the odd moment of greatness that leaps out at you.

But the more you listen to it, the more you start to notice the connections. One of the songs ("Don't Look Down") begins with a deep Johnny Cash-esque vocal intoning a pretty melody accompanied only by a guitar, then you hear what appears to be a fridge being dropped from a great height and the whole thing goes mad! But on repeated listens, all the weird effects only seem to add to what is, in reality, a sensibly constructed verse-chorus-verse-chorus song. It's now one of my favourites.

The album kicks off with 'Kriss Kross', a bombastic orchestra hit-laden number tempered by a hauntingly elated refrain imploring the listener not to cry, but to go out on the town and enjoy themselves - 'the moon is gonna dance for us tonight'. It's what Suede's 'Saturday Night' might have sounded like had it been produced by Wagner. Next up is the groovy 'Big Dog', a cheeky, tongue-in-cheek hip-hop number whose self-conscious coolness seems deliberately undermined by its refrain of 'big heart, big hug, big dog, that's what I want'. It's a great live favourite and transfers well to CD. 'Falling Out of Reach' is a more standard affair - a chilled out song about getting 'burned out'. Bouncy fun and anthemic choruses follow in the shape of the album's first single, 'Get Over It'. Next up are a trio of songs that it's quite difficult to describe. One is a bollywood number called 'Last Kiss'. It's my least favourite track on the album and the only one I don't really like - it's not bad, but it seems an experiment too far. Perhaps others will appreciate it more. This is sandwiched between the more pallatable, but no less interesting, 'Clarion' and 'Cockateels'. After this, we get a very typical (but no worse for that) Guillemots song in the slow, jazzy 'Words' - another of the album's high points.

There follows the best Guillemots song since 'Trains to Brazil'. 'Standing on the Last Star' is an amazingly melancholic evocation of the end of the world. The way in which it evokes a genuinely elegiac sense of despair only to countermand it with a self-deprecating refrain that asks 'Will nothing in the world ever make you happy?' reminds one of The Smiths - as does the Johnny Marr-style guitar riff. It's truly wonderful stuff. There follows the aforementioned 'Don't Look Down' and the blues-influenced 'Take Me Home'.

All in all, it's an acquired taste and newcomers might well be better off listening to the band's debut album. Nevertheless, it is immensely rewarding on repeated listening. Challenging it is, but well worth the effort.

Here's to the next album!

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Rating: - Keep listening
This is a fantastic album. The lyrics are amazing and the songs are put together beautifully. When I first heard it, it sounded like the songs were in a totally random order and didn't seem to fit together well, but having listened to it lots it is just right. Guillemots are very talented musically and Fyfe's voice is incredible - goodness knows how he manages to sing that high and that low! I was lucky enough to win the competition from Amazon and got to see them live in their studio. Wow - what a night... If you get a chance to see them live, don't think twice - just do it!

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Rating: - Fantastic!!
I think this album is as good as the first album. It's refreshing to hear a band that are willing to try new things and willing to vary from the current dire indie music out there. At times this album may sound a little disjointed but the overall sound is superb. Some have criticised this album because it's so different from their debut album but surely thats the sign of a good musicianship! The ability to stand out and try different things rather than producing the same old thing. If you are willing to try something different then give this a go!! If you're expecting the same as the first album then you maybe very disappointed!

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Rating: - There is such a thing as being TOO ambitious
If there was a problem with the Guillemots, and in my book there most certainly was, it was that for all their willful quirkiness and "we're not like a normal band" posturing, there was a problem with their tunes. They were ok, but not the most memorable in a strict pop sense. Hence my opinion that I could take them or leave them.

It's nothing to do with me of course, unless one of the three people who read this blog is releated to them, but the one thing you cannot throw against them this time around is any complaint that they aren't catering to the mainstream.

Pop may still be a dirty word, but it's what the Guillemots are aiming for. Which makes the album all the more frustrating as a result.

When it's "on" it's really quite magical; Cockateels and Kriss Kross provide two of the most sublime pop moments of the year so far and lead single Get Over It was good enough to make me reconsider my opinion of the band.

Still, the same problems remain. In an attempt to prove they are nothing like anyone else there is a definate "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" mentality. Sadly, too little of it does stick. Last Kiss, for instance, is particularly muddled to little apparent effect.

It's not a terrible listen, but for me it falls into thumbs down territory more than it rises into the thumbs up. Proof that individual and quirky isn't always 100% a good thing.