Review:

on 2011-11-24 CharlesMartel Said:

The Klaxons hail from New Cross, which is where Mrs Martel was brought up and is about four miles away from where I now live. It is one of the more deprived areas of London. Most of the music there is dominated by urban RnB, but there is a venue called, unimaginatively, The Venue, which specialises in tribute acts and late night knife fights. Perhaps the lack of musical innovation in the area has rubbed off on the Klaxons.

Their debut, "Myths of the Near Future" is like so many albums by bands who came out around the same time in the UK that it becomes almost painful to listen to. The attempt to marry punk with dance themes, in the vein of the Music, is a spectacular fail here. And the effort they put into conveying true emotion sounds forced and articifical. It doesn't help that most of the music is a sort of Coldplay parody and most of the lyrics are meaningless drivel 

"Krill-edible oceans at their feet,
A troublesome troupe out on safari.
A lullaby holds their drones in sleep.
For tatteling clearly indiscreet
Five fallible flags in hybersonic are told to stay nearly out of reach"

Yes, well...

Strangely, it opens up with a promising track. "Two Receivers" though is as good as it is going to get and by the time you reach the second track, "Atlantis to Interzone", you have already reached the end of the Klaxon's ability to have anything new to say. The frequent and baffling chord shifts make this sound like a song in search of a tune. I seriously would recommend at this point that you give up.

The rest of the album contains pretty much the same combination of melodies and harmonies that you have already heard. If you get this far you will find that what you are listening to is an ocean of blandness with as much inspiration and joie de vivre as plain Ryvita without butter or dressing. And they think they are being clever with a hidden track and, as you ought to know by now, I hate hidden tracks.

You get the impression that the Kalxons have gone out of their way to try to be different and ended up falling flat on their faces. Anyone can be different. What counts is being different and good with it, and this the Klaxons are most certainly not. It takes more than good intentions and the Klaxons have little more than those to offer anyone.
Rating: 2/10

Review:

on 2007-03-01 paperslut Said:

I'll be honest. I like NME. And they like everything. I haven't read a single review that was under 7 of 10. And ever since they gave Klaxons 9, I'd been waiting to get my hands on this baby. Oh man is their website trippy.

Heralded as the new wave of new rave, the weight of expectation on MOTNF was high. And fortunately, I'm a sucker for opening tracks. So Two Receivers had me at hello, though admittedly I thought it was the opening to Sick Sad Little World (Incubus). And though it's not really a 9 of 10 track, it's got enough spunk in it to ensure a good start to the album.

From then on, it's a roller coaster ride through, well, most places in South England (okay so they're from London), some places in Morocco and wherever else there's a party with alcohol punch and fruit. Golden Skans, with it's floaty ooo's and aaa's is psychedelic pop at its best with its druids and whatnots. Somewhere in between Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes we find ourselves drunk in the video game end credits of Gravity's Rainbow and suddenly the Bee Gees type vocal harmonies aren't that cheesy anymore. Phew. It's not just the harmonies that bring back fond memories of disco and shiny balls, but just the way the songs flow from one bouncy robot beat to another.

Where Klaxons lose out to, say The Rapture, is in energy. Which is not to say that the songs aren't terribly exciting. "Light the bridges with the lantern, you know something's going to happen" (Forgotten Worlds) Klaxons may be caught for trying too hard. Maybe.

Rating: 7/10