Audio Bullys - Higher Than The Eiffel
Review by Jack Foley
IT’S been four years since Audio Bullys’ last release, Generation, and during that time they admit to having lost their way.
Sadly, on the evidence of third album Higher Than The Eiffel, they’re still some way from finding it!
According to Simon Franks and Tom Dinsdale, the LP finds them recapturing the energy and dancefloor instincts that helped make them such a powerful force on the UK dance scene in the first place.
It mixes their love of house and breaks but also tosses away the rule book in a bid to broaden their sound and widen their appeal.
Certainly, on the evidence of lead single, Only Man, they appeared to have got halfway there, thanks to a sharp mix of breaks, snappy electronic loops and a swagger, lad-like ode to manogamy that was empowering.
But listening to the rest of the album is often disappointing to say the least.
The laddish swagger, or conversational vocal style, alluded to earlier does it few favours… while in banging club anthems such as Drums (On With The Story) – a really poor album opener – and Feel Alright they prove quite a turn-off.
Ironically, it’s when keeping things a little more serene and highlighting the diversity in their songwriting that Audio Bullys score far more highly.
Daisy Chains, for instance, offers a nice early psychedelic comedown that follows Only Man‘s stomp in really nice fashion, and raises hopes.
The chic guitar disco of Dynamite, meanwhile, manages to drop quite a funky vibe that features one of the best vocals, as well as a mid-tempo shuffle, while there’s a vaguely Bonobo-ish sensibility to some of the horn sounds that reverberate around Drained Out. The vocals, too, while pretty lifeless, are nicely in keeping with the downbeat tale of addiction the song tells (“I’ve pissed away everything I’ve had…” and “I’m in hell, I’m in a trap… I feel the sting, I feel the pain, I see my whole life drifting down the drain”).
Final two tracks, 17 and Goodbye, meanwhile, end things on a high – with the latter, in particular, dropping a satisfying ska vibe and some hopeful vocals that serve as a pleasing contrast to some of the more hard-hitting material.
But while these do represent highlights and are worth checking out, particularly if you’re a fan of the dance scene, there are some really awful moments in between that set the LP backwards.
The Future Belongs To Us and Shotgun are two such examples that barely qualify as songs… so much as nob-twiddling gone overboard. The effect can be nauseating.
The overall result, therefore, is an album of fits and starts… occasionally good, sometimes bad – mostly indifferent.
Download picks: Only Man, Daisy Chains, Drained Out, 17, Goodbye
Track listing: