Review Summary: The boys fail to grow into men and instead deliver another sub-par album
When a band with a commercially successful debut album come to releasing a second, it can often be a defining moment in that bands career. Should they remain true to their roots and release material similar to the album that bought them to the position they now hold, or instead should they be adventurous; expand from the sound of their debut and experiment with their song structures. Taking into account the importance of such a simple choice, it is not surprising that many bands suffer from poor second albums, choking under the pressure and releasing sub-standard records. London based Boy Kill Boy’s debut album
Civilian was one of the countless British alternate rock debuts that was met with commercial success in Britain itself, but created no buzz elsewhere. Catchy in places and suave without being sophisticated the album best resembled something Franz Ferdinand would release without the ineffable charm of front man Alex Kapranos. Whilst the singles were brilliant, the rest of the album lacked a sense of direction, with a lot of filler seemingly thrown in to buff the album out a little. Now back with a second effort
Stars And The Sea, Boy Kill Boy will be hoping for a repeat of the commercial success of their debut in order to garner a foothold in an ever expanding sea of British talent.
First impressions of
Stars And The Sea are promising. Lead singles
Promises and
No Conversation open the album in a predictably upbeat fashion with inoffensive guitar riffs dominating proceedings. Couple this with tidy vocal performances and it is clear that the band have not lost the pop sensibilities that were shown abundantly in
Civilian.
Promises in particular shines; the powerful verses are backed up by the most immediately catchy chorus on the album and the track keeps going to the very end, a stark contrast to
No Conversation which falls into a tedious middle-ground tempo about halfway through. This uncomfortable tempo becomes a real problem later in the album with many tracks losing their drive prematurely, a flaw that makes for an uneasy listening experience. Thankfully nothing of the sort happens to next track and album highlight
Be Somebody, which backs up the two singles brilliantly with an infectiously catchy main riff and synth combination uniting fantastically.
Regrettably, after three excellent opening tracks, everything else on
Stars And The Sea is a write off. The musical quality drops significantly as the album progresses, and what started out as an engaging riff heavy album soon degenerates into the predictable, disposable pop that is the bread and butter for most mainstream radio stations. This lack of focus is summed up by the slower tempo adopted by the band. Songs such as
Kidda Kidda and
Pen And Ink show a lack of direction and although relatively short seem to drag on well past their welcome. Chris Peck’s vocals suffer badly as the album develops. Whilst not an awful vocalist at all he had a somewhat stiff performance on
Civilian and, with the exception of the three opening tracks, does little to redeem himself throughout
Stars And The Sea. On
Rosie’s On Fire and in particular
A OK he seems a completely different man altogether, his vocals reduced to monotonous moans . Late reprieve does arrive with closer
Two Souls which remarkably contains not only the best vocal performance Peck has given for Boy Kill Boy but is also far and away the most professionally produced song in the bands catalogue.
Despite being slightly more consistent than their debut it is no surprise that this album failed to reach much commercial success. Although marketed poorly by the record label, with practically no advertising at all, at the end of the day the musical quality on offer lets this album down more than anything. The lack of variation that was present in
Civilian has manifested into
Stars And The Sea as well and whilst the vocals are good in moderation the monotonous drones of Chris Peck soon get tedious. Though the singles are not as mind blowing as
Suzie they are still fun and definitely worth a listen; although due to the slump in quality this reviewer warns potential buyers of this album to not get it solely on the merits of these tracks.
Recommended Tracks
Promises
Be Somebody
Two Souls
Overall 2 Poor
