Us

About ten listens later, I'm more than ready to eat my words. Am I Wrong? Yes. MHS have a great album here; it just gets better with every listen. With each play you hear a bit more of the breath-taking depth of this album, and you learn to love it that bit more. Be warned, however; Us is a monumental grower. Do not expect to hear Colin Macintyre's brilliance on the first listen. In fact, you will most probably cringe at his slightly nasal vocals, and ask yourself how any band can expect to get off the ground with a voice as grating as that leading it. However, the small-island-man's vocal chords are just another example of the extraordinary grower quality of the album; keep listening and it begins to blend perfectly with his band's take on lush psychedelia.

Problems? Us is perhaps a bit too long. If Macintyre had cut out some of the slightly average songs, like "Clones" and "Five More Minutes", it would have made for a far more snappy and trimmed offering. MHS also have a tendency to be heavy-handed with their quirkiness on a couple of the tracks. I wouldn't call this showiness; it seems Macintyre is over-eager to prove something. The title track would be a beautiful Aqualung-esque moment, but is distracted by the unneccessary plonky beginning and the weird shouted ending.

All in all, a rousing, earnest and often heart-wrenching album. Don't make the mistake I did; listen to it a couple of times before making your mind up.

You'll be happy to know there's no sophomore slump here. While Loss was an album full of potential it suffered several shortcomings. One in particular was Colin's luddite obsession with fighting everyting modern. On picking up the album Us, tracks with sames such as "Asylum", "Live like the automatics", "Minister for Genetics & Insurance MP", "The supermarket strikes back" and "Clones" may suggest to you that he has gone totally overboard with his new album. However the opposite is true. The songs on "Us" bear no reference to political climate and are in fact personal introspective songs. As he says on "Live like the automatics" - "Fighting society never did much for me".

Track by track what to expect:

1. The Final Arrears. This was the debut single from the album and bears the same style as the songs "Watching Xanadu" and "Animal Cannibus" from Loss. Nothing particularly new here, just the usual high quality instrumental arrangement and catchy tune.

2. Am I Wrong. The next single to be released from the album. Another solid song, a bit too similar to previous efforts though.

3. Oh Mother - as you can guess from the name, one of the more personal songs from the album.

4. Asylum - No reference to refugees or anything here. One of my favourite songs from the album, has a warm fuzzy feel to it. Favourite line : "so please sit on the sunny side of me".

5. Live Like the automatics - upbeat number, finishing with the repeated couplet - "we look over our shoulder and the sunlight never grows older". A song I find myself singing in the shower.

6. Don't take your love away from me - mellow ballad to follow on from the previous song.

7. Minister for genetics and insurance mp. Don't ask me what the metaphor is, am still trying to figure it out. In any case this song has a very catchy chorus and is another one I find myself singing in the shower.

8. 5 more minutes - Dedicated to his recently deceased father. Very simple effective song.

9. Gravity - love this one, upbeat and racy. Seems to be directed to an ex-girlfriend of sorts. Colin lets us peak behind the squeaky clean image a little.

10. Can - another mellow number to follow the upbeat tempo of Gravity.

11. The supermarket strikes back - The follow-up to "Barcode Bypass" on "Loss". Very catchy, is also the song where he seems to reveal a dependance on prescription drugs.

12. Clones - another catchy number. Contains the great line "Queen of the scene, I knew then what could be". Hmmm, are you trying to tell us something Colin?

13. Her Is You - very short number with a catchy beat (which may be taken from another song, not sure).

14. Us. A bit of a low point to end the album with. A solid song but nothing particulary sparkling.

In short, a worthy successor to a particular good debut. If you're looking for an album different to the usual crop of generic music out there, this one is the one to go to. Keeps hardcore music lovers happy, and contains enough catchy songs to keep pop-lovers happy too :-)