aaamusic | On 04, Jul 2011

Dubbed under the vague genre of ‘Art-pop’, Captain Dangerous return with a new single as a follow up to their 2009 debut album The House That Jack Hayter Built.

At first listen you don’t really know what to make of the group.  The bands busy sound is hard to grasp at first, with both their single Forgive Us We’re British and the b-side Everything Beautiful Reminds Me of You simply having too much in one song.  For instance the b-side changes pace constantly throughout the track, with verses building up to a massive crescendo into an anthemish chorus.  It doesn’t really work because of the guitar solos, violins and trumpets throughout the track, there’s simply too much to take notice of.

With the bands single its starts in a Jack Penate style, offering softly spoken lyrics.  It builds into a similar fashion to their b-side, however the band have taken a more minimalist approach which yields better results.  The problem remains that Captain Dangerous have simply bitten off more they can chew instrumentally and in the end it sounds a little like Mark Ronson having a musical orgy. 

Fair do’s to the band for exploring an ambitious sound, however if the band had an established producer or went for a more raw, unrefined sound Captain Dangerous would have had a catchier single.

Author: Tom Crowther