65daysofstatic: We Were Exploding Anyway
In April of 2010, English band, 65daysofstatic released their fourth album, We Were Exploding Anyway. The album was the best selling of their career, debuting at number 99 in the UK album charts and number 7 in the UK independent albums chart. Eighteen months later, the album is being released in special expanded format in North America. The expanded format features the original album as well as the recent Heavy Sky EP.
The packaging of We Were Exploding Anyway and Heavy Sky is a good move because they are the only two releases of their kind in the 65daysofstatic catalog. Before 2010, the band was a guitar driven, progressive math rock band. With the release of their fourth album, they turned over a new leaf towards electronic easily time-signatured music. While I can not imagine the choice was popular with the group’s long time fans, it does make their music more digestible for the masses.
The album’s lead single “Weak4” probably is not destined to be a hit. The main reason is, not many instrumentals become hits nowadays. The track does have a fairly familiar melody, strangely reminiscent of Madonna‘s “Secret.” But the aggressive drum and bass sound almost assures the track of being seen as too much of a niche for the mainstream.
While the epic 8 minute “Come to Me” probably is not radio ready, it is the only song on the collection to feature vocals. The vocals are not done in house either, the band imports Cure vocalist Robert Smith to do the honors. Smith does not sing many words in the song, but the vocals are endlessly looped and reverbed to make his part sound much larger than it really is.
the entire album sounds large. It is amazing how a post-punk band can become an arena-sized electronic group but that seems to be what has happened to 65daysofstatic. The metamorphosis results in the best album of their career. Although the Heavy Sky EP does not add a lot to the collection, it is probably worth buying the re-release if you do not own We Were Exploding Anyway.
Rating: 7.2/10
MP3: 65daysofstatic “Come to Me”
Buy: iTunes or Insound!
65daysofstatic: We Were Exploding Anyway
