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Album Details

• Artist: Grand National
• Album: Kicking The National Habit
• Label: Sunday Best/Recall
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2006-04-25

I'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea for Kicking The National Habit to be released in North America. This seems like very European music. The sheet that I received with this Grand National album threw out names like New Order and The Happy Mondays mixed with Blur (I might personally throw the Police in there due to one particular song). Now those are all very successful bands but I have a feeling that Grand National isn't going to be so lucky. This is the sort of band I would hire for a party. A party that you want a good easy going vibe. Nothing intrusive, just good rhythms to groove to.
The album opens strong with one of the best tracks: "Drink To Moving On", one where they most likely got the Happy Mondays comparison. They reach to the synths on "Talk Amongst Yourself", another half decent track with a very similar groove to the previous. "Playing In The Distance" hits a little harder and I might even throw out a Stereo MCs comparison on this one. Then on "Daylight Goes" they pull out a very obvious Police nod, and then by reading their bio the two members were in a Police cover band previously. But numbness happens on boring tracks like "Litter Bin" which probably should have ended up there rather than the album. There are a handful of others that plague the album making it a half baked effort.
Kicking the National Habit was originally released in Europe in 2004 and finally received a North American release in 2006.

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