Welcome To The North

When The Music first arrived on our stereos with their limited edition Fierce Panda debut single they were heralded as the natural successors to The Stone Roses: a baggy beated rock band capable of forging anthemic tunes that could unite indie boys and dance heads with a flick of their flared jeans. Their debut, self-titled album even managed to pull off the feat of sounding like Led Zep for the E Generation, something ‘The Second Coming’ had tried, and failed, to achieve.

The return of The Music has been a relatively low-key affair. A headline slot at Creamfields (one of the festival calendars minor events) and a download only single (the album’s title track ‘Welcome To The North’) have ushered the boys back with a whimper rather than the planet bashing explosion you’d expect. Even the title of this sophomore effort is less than awe-inspiring, sounding, as it does, like a DVD from un-funny comedian Bernard Manning.

One listen, though, is enough to make you realise that the band have returned with a second set capable of making them the biggest band around. The sound is more expansive and significantly heavier (check out the bass on ‘Cessation’ of the guitars on first single proper ‘Freedom Fighters’), the tunes more impressive (like ‘Strays’ era Jane’s Addiction mixed with the power of 70s hard rock) and Robert Harvey’s vocals are like tabloid headlines: bold, brassy and attention grabbing. This is a collection of songs that all justify the tag ‘anthemic’, songs capable of giving Muse a run for their top-of-the-bill position at next year’s festivals, songs so powerful they’re likely to be hunted down by George W Bush as potential Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Listening to the ‘Waterfall’-on-steroids of ‘Breakin’, the mammoth chorus to ‘Guide’ or the epic album closer ‘Open Your Mind’ highlights just what a huge leap forward the band have made. Even though the song titles are often second division (‘I Need Love’, ‘Into The Night’) this is a band in no danger of blowing early predictions to become a ‘New Bluetones’. ‘Welcome To The North’ is the sound of a band brimming with confidence; ready to shed their indie shackles to become the world-straddling rock gods they so often sound like.