The boys from Pennsylvania are back with their fifth full-length rock album, simply titled V (Radioactive). They’ve come a long way since Lightning Crashes and I Alone catapulted them to fame, but mostly still deliver the goods.
V opens with the lively Simple Creed, a well-constructed song with a simple message (“We gotta love each other”) and a guest appearance by Tricky (Ed Kowalczyk returns the favour on Tricky’s Blowback album).
The album has been criticised for having no real attitude, and in parts this is true. There doesn’t always seem to be much of the raw anger found on early albums. But People Like You assures, “Where (are) the boys in Live? They’re pissin’ in the mainstream” — obviously Live are confident that they’re doing their own thing, the way they want to.
It’s not a bland or boring album. The rock is powerful and tightly knitted, as melodic as only Live can make it, and variety spices it up, like on Forever May Not Be Long Enough, with an electronic edge and Eastern singing. The ballads (especially the beautiful string-laden Overcome, declared a tribute to New York terrorism victims) are fine. Try it, you may just get hooked.
Ten readers can each win a copy of Live’s V album as well as a signed poster. Answer the question below and e-mail your answer with your name, phone number and address to [email protected], marking it “Live giveaway”. E-mails must reach us by Monday December 10.
Question: Who is the lead singer of Live?
Matter of fact
The e-mail address in the Intimacy soundtrack competition last week was incorrect. Here is the right info:
Five readers can each win a copy of the Intimacy soundtrack. Answer the question below and send the answer with your name and address to [email protected], putting “Intimacy” in the subject line. The first five correct entrants get a CD, courtesy of Virgin Records.
Question: On whose story is Intimacy based?
Lighthouse Family Whatever Gets You through the Day (Polydor)
Lighthouse Family are the perfect commercial-radio band: their lite soul chugs from wine bars and the backs of taxis, unstinting in its insistence that hey, everything’s gonna be alright. This is presumably why New Labour in the United Kingdom chose the Family’s Lifted as a soundtrack for its rise to power. There is a grinning, comfy, New Labourite feel to all of Whatever Gets You Through the Day: the odd melancholy musical tinge aside, this is music that seeps contentment, with titles such as Life’s a Dream and It’s a Beautiful Day. So, it will find enormous favour with fans of M-People, Deacon Blue and God. Indeed, the gospel segue of Nina Simone’s black-power anthem (I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be) Free into U2’s One is positively Sir Cliff-like. Meanwhile, the rest of us may find feeling bitter and twisted gets us through the day just fine. — Dave Simpson