Underground Railroad - Sticks And Stones Review

It’s about time we faced facts: as a society we’ve got too fat and apathetic to ever fully embrace the grunge revival that seems to be heralded as just around the corner every month or so. Even our most infamous skag lovers are packing a few extra pounds these days, living in unbridled opulence in north London – the result being no-one’s angry enough to give a flying fuck what The Man is up to any more. Stick The Ting Tings on and let him get on with it, we say, everything will be fine. The French, on the other hand, have no problem smashing shit up when someone tries to do a number on them, and thus it seems fitting that our best hope for our very own angry young revolutionaries to breathe new life into the genre are from the other side of the channel....full text On Sticks and Stones, Underground Railroad take the concept of difficult second album syndrome, chew it up, spit it out and grind it into the floor before most bands would even have tuned up their guitars. Or, in other words, they build on the solid foundation of last summer's Twisted Trees to take their heady mix of sounds poached from the Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain and Death Cab For Cutie to new heights.

Think My Bloody Valentine if they'd decided to come back as a Seattle Nu-Wave pop trio with shades of emo and you'll be somewhere close: angular guitars, Madchester loops of psychedelic haze topped by friendly melodies and melodramatics that try and succeed to keep their cool. Of course, they come with such a pedigree you'd expect little else - it's not just any band that gets asked to open for Dinosaur Jr on their European tour....full text One Little Indian Records, out September 29th.

In a nutshell...

Disappointingly average self-absorbed rock.

What's it all about?

10 alt.rock/emo songs in a mixture of French and English, lasting a full 38 minutes.

Who's it by

NME’s alt.rock band of 2008 follow up their jagged debut with this, supposedly smoother second album. A French trio comprising drummer Raphael Mura, guitarist Marion Andrau (both of whom take lead vocals), and bassist/backing vocalist JB Ganivet and produced by John Goodmanson, the man famous for producing the best of Death Cab.

As an example...

"It's coming to the end but he'd rather ignore it and pretend/ust do yourself a favour give yourself a push a new flavour/Kill the time before it kills you."

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

The crititcs are going to love it, but this one is no where near mainstream enough to win anything like a Grammy. Try the NME and Kerrang awards instead. They should sweep them.

What the others say

"Underground Railroad play the type of electronica-fueled alt rock that most would have bored of before leaving high school. Remember Sunna? It's not much different, in approach, to that." – Simpson – Cow and Field

"An acre-leap forward from Twisted Trees, songs such as 25 and Kill Me haul radio-wilting melody into the mix without muscling out the band’s razor-toothed melusky-esque wilderness." – Jamie Fullerton - NME...full text