Album Details

• Artist: Nosferatu D2
• Album: We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise
• Label: Audio Antihero
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: archelon on 2009-11-30

Buddhism teaches that the simplicity of life is key to spiritual enlightenment, and Nosferatu D2 have a simple, two-person line-up in the form of two brothers from Croydon - Ben and Adam Parker. Their debut album (the title of which is too long for me to write multiple times so we're gonna call it WGWATCWOHOTBOTN) rightly suggests an uncomprimising nature and an unmistakable punk sound - possibly two things Buddhism would not approve of. Nevertheless, there is a distinct lack of fluff here - it's raw and frantic and remarkably easy to listen to.

XFm, Drowned In Sound and Art Brut's Chris Chinchilla like this band, and they've played with Los Campesinos!, and the theme seems to be the unrelenting assault on pop culture and the angular, twisted world (Croydon) the Parker boys hail . The leering, sarcastic tones capture the post-punk mindset perfectly and I after listening to songs like the sparse 'I Killed Burt Bacharach' and the dark, loaded '2 People, 0 Superpowers' I think Death From Above should be buying the Parkers a drink. Lyrically it's just brilliant, the stuff riots are made of, the very best kind of conscience music. 'Springsteen' is a great example:

"You can burn down my hometown / I don't care to be quite honest / It's just a forest of KFC's, Starbucks and Maccy D's / A vast array of cash machines."

The most gut-wrenching thing about WGWATCWOHOTBOTN is the fact that it all sounds so viably angst-y. You can almost feel Ben Parker's spit through your speakers. The album judders and bounces and drags you along, shouting abuse at you all the while, but it's such eloquent abuse that you just want to listen to it, take it all in, then meekly ask for more. As Gareth of Los Campesinos! put it: "Well, this fucks up my provisional Albums of the Year list..."

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