The Speed Of Sound

A Cornucopia: Minerva

Big Stir Records

The new album from this garage/power pop UK band is dark and dystopian, but in a way that says something. With themes as overused at these, it's much to the band's credit that they have something new to say, something needed, said in the right ways.

Mass culture, especially on the internet, can suck the life out of humanity, and while that’s been said before, it’s said here to music that rocks with great urgency – music that has as much to say as the lyrics do. One thematic example is just how much great music can be found in today's underground that never gets its due from the mainstream. The majors, and big indies as well, can’t be bothered to sign these artists and get them out to the general public.

The album is also political, and while this is about UK politics, much of it could also apply to the US. It's another example of mass culture, the way politics are now just another commodity. This is as depressing as it is to fight the power. We need to make politics real. It’s too important not to.

The band presents all this with grit, but also a light touch. Gum up the system, not the music. It all works wonderfully, and is well worth the time to listen and to think about what you’ve just heard. It may make you want to fight mass culture – whether it be politics or music – and exchange it for something more real, and a lot more genuine and sincere.

Andrea Weiss