Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, 9 Sep 2006
After hearing the title track 'Empire' on MTV2, I decided I was definitely going to buy this album. I enjoyed the debut album immensely, depsite the fact there were a few weak tracks.
I definitely think the band have regressed with this album. I thought some of the music from the self-titled album was quite inspiring and unique but with 'Empire', too many of the tracks sound similar and, if you take out the title track, it's just typical rock music, which I find rather dull. There was a more frequent use of electronica on the 'Kasabian' album, blended with baggy rock music, clearly influenced by 'The Stone Roses' and 'The Happy Mondays', which made it a very stong debbut album and made the band so huge in this country, and globally.
I'm not saying the music on the album is rubbish. 'Stuntman' is a good track and there are a few other decent tracks but apart from 'Empire', nothing on the album is that memorable or outstanding.
Buy it for 'Empire' but I strongly suggest you purchase the debut album if you want hear the band's real talent.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing, 12 Sep 2006
I have to agree with the previous comments - this album is a real let down after I enjoyed the first so much. The first two tracks are good (I've listened to Empire about a million times already) but that's it, nothing else interested me. Basically if you liked the track ID from the first album and you want more of the same, forget about it, it isn't there and I don't like what they've done instead. I would previously have described myself as an avid fan (heh!) but not any more.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A distinctly average second album, 8 Sep 2006
You'll remember it of course- when you were young and you used to think that on Christmas morning the best present was the BIG one, the one wrapped with massive ribbons and bows. But the fact is, no matter how much anticipation or "wrapping", you still can't change the disappointment when you actually get down to the present itself.
The point of all this is quite simple. Kasabian have got a great marketing team who by now have much of the UK music scene believing they are the biggest band in the world. But their downfall is where as on the debut album (Kasabian), the album was better than you imagined, with "Empire", I'm afraid you imagine it to be better than it is.
The boy's debut album was full of neat invention, clever studio trickery and outright anthems- any album with "Clubfoot", "LSF", "Processed Beats" and "Reason Is Treason" on would do any band proud. It was an organic album, one with a very cool relaxed ethos and one with although sketchy, worked as a whole brilliantly.
On "Empire" we find a very messy, noisy production with no real distinction between tracks, save for "British Legion" which, although serves as a welcome change of sound, is still only worthy of B-side material. Many of the tracks here are over-produced with distorted, reverbed vocals- and most of the time this is a distraction more than anything else.
Even album opener and first single "Empire" is still not in the same class as anything from the debut album- it's kind of a second cousin of LSF, and not the sort of cousin you want to see very often. What comes next is better. "Shoot The Runner" is one of the album highlights, an insanely catchy hookline and great chorus, if somewhat let down again by some poor production.
"Last Trip (In Flight)" is very very average and should again by confined a B-side, "Me Plus One" is a solid song but there's nothing magical about it.
"Sun Rise Light Flies" would be fantastic were it not a repeat of "Setting Sun" by the Chemical Brothers. "Apnoea" is an embarrassing mess, and "Seek And Destroy" is like Kasabian covers a Strokes B-side.
It's not all doom and gloom- album standouts are "Stuntman" which begs the question, if they can write this kind of superb song, why is the rest of the album so poor? Also, "By My Side" and "The Doberman" which is one of the best things they've ever recorded and offers some hope of better thing to come for the future.
For now though, it's back to the drawing board, and maybe less time focusing on egos?
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