Title - ‘The Art of Losing’ (Island)
Artist - American Hi-Fi
This is nowhere near as good as their debut. To put it simply there are not the tunes available here that there were on their highly impressive, and highly addictive debut. Sure, the whole album has a 'pop' feel to it, but the only decent song on The Art of Losing has to be the first single of the same name! And, clearly there has been a drain on the creative edge, in terms of both lyrics and the riffs (especially riffs) as the opening drum beats are stolen directly from the twin drummers from Adam & The Ants! The debut had more variety, and nearly every track was distinctive and memorable. 'Surround', 'Flavor of the Week', 'I'm a Fool' and 'Another Perfect Day' were all quality tracks. There aren't really any bad songs here, to be honest though, it's just they lack the sparkle they have shown themselves to be capable of. They set themselves aside from most punk/alternative rock groups that are being churned out, and they deserve every credit for that, but maybe their debut set such a high mark that they’ll never get there again? I hope I’m wrong.
Russ Trunk
www.americanhi-fi.com
www.islandrecords.com
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