News and Tributes

News and Tributes

Formed at the Sunderland City Detached Youth Project, a U.K. organization that encourages wayward youngsters to learn music, the Futureheads further seasoned their post-punk pedigree opening shows for the Pixies and Foo Fighters. Their early EP (appended here at album’s end) is pure punk energy as funneled through an appreciation for the Clash and Richard Hell & the Voidoids (sans the outlandish guitar leads). News and Tributes, their second album, takes a grander approach. Producer Ben Hillier tightens the sound until the guitars slash and vibrate in unison and the harmonies are blocked so precisely that amongst the jagged rhythms rests a polished pop compactness of ELO, Queen and the Cars. The handclaps, conventional harmonies and goofy back-up vocals for “Fallout,” and the playful rhythmic shifts for “Skip to the End” suggest a band anxious to broaden their horizons as their abilities expand, while the title track, a ‘tribute’ to the 1958 Manchester United Football team that lost most of its members in a plane crash, proves they’re also looking to cover more ground than their initial approach suggested.

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