The Strange Death of Liberal England - Forward March!

01-Modern Folk Song
02-Oh Solitude
03-A Day Another Day
04-An Old Fashioned War
05-Mozart On 33
06-I Saw Evil
07-God Damn Broke And Broken Hearted
08-Summer Gave Us Sweets But Autumn Wrought Division

We have Arcade Fire to thank for stirring three peculiar ingredients into the bubbling pot of modern pop: the baroque arrangement, the atonal, rabble-rousing singalong, and the unsettling, primeval lyric. The Strange Death of Liberal England, a brilliantly named five-piece from Portsmouth, have drunk deep of this potion. They sing songs in shouty, American-accented unison about wars, graves and solitude over thudding pianos, growling basslines, and relentless percussion, bringing to mind the anarchy of Pixies and the strange pastoralism of British Sea Power. Still, the confident delivery of these songs is often too strong and too rough, as if every member's throat and guitar strings had been rubbed with hot coals. Gentler moments prosper: the quiet vocal lines of Modern Folk Song and the sweet lull of An Old Fashioned War showing how restraint can be revealing. A promising, if overwhelming, start...www.guardian.co.uk