Album Review
The Airborne Toxic Event The Airborne Toxic Event [Major Domo] Po-faced LA indie. Soon to be massive.
There’s something oddly suspicious about bands from Los Angeles, as if they come from the same conveyor line mindset that rules the local film industry. Airborne Toxic Event are a particularly valid example: fronted by a last-chancer who changed his life around after seeing Fight Club, their entire being hints at a carefully calculated sonic formula, and generally, it’s the same one applied by Razorlight.
But there’s craft here if not creation. Happiness Is Overrated is an instant indie anthem with a big Clash chorus, while Sometime Around Midnight has that epic, slow-burning thing down pat. Mikel Jollett’s voice cracks emotively in all the right places, the guitars swoop and swoon and the lyrics tell bohemian tales of late nights and broken hearts. It’s big, mainstream indie and not bad for it. Shame there’s a nagging sense it wants to be seen as more. (5) DAN STUBBS
- 12.02.09
