aaamusic | On 23, Oct 2011

Is it just me that wonders how new bands, new, hungry bands, driven to take over the world with nothing but self belief and the best songs they can write, can still sound like All Mankind. It doesn’t even make sense to say that this is a calculated attempt on the mainstream by sounding exactly like the bands usually bandied around when talking about this Australian quartet, The Killers, U2, Coldplay and Keane, as none of the aforementioned bands are sounding like this anyway, they’ve all gone on to (slightly) more experimental pastures and half left behind “widescreen” (I.E. slightly delayed) guitars and “Yearning” (I.E. overly-sincere) vocals, and all this, despite every member of the aforementioned bands harping on about their love of dubstep and god knows what to sound more alternative, seems to have hurtled by All Mankind without them noticing. So not only does this sound washed out and cliché, but it also sounds hopelessly dated as well. Like it should come from about 2004, when they might have had a chance at being as big as the clearly think they should be. However, this would all mean nothing if the songs were great, look at Oasis, their sound was derivative, cliché and dated but the sheer, balls out quality of the songs made them stand out. I wish I could say the same thing about this particular album, but that, dear reader, would make me a liar.

 

If I’m totally honest with you, this album isn’t completely worthless, some of it, like album midpoint “Can You Hear Me”, it’s fist-pumping harmonies, admittedly delectable melodies and unashamed Don’t Stop Believing chord sequence underneath it would make it a pretty awesome guilty pleasure, if I believed in guilty pleasures. So in all it’s just the best track on here. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much. However before I try my hardest to tear this album the new one I feel it richly deserves I should say that if you are going to listen to out of date, beige tripe then you might as well listen to this out of date, beige tripe, there’s a vague sense of cohesion about the album, the songs are blandly well written and the band seem to have a sense of identity for themselves. Ironically it’s an entirely forgettable identity but an identity nonetheless.

 

On the other hand, pretty much the rest of this album is dire. Singer Richard Beeston’s voice is punchable whether it’s hushed and low (To Live) Sounding utterly Identical to one Chris Martin’s (Heart Of The Universe) or chancing his arm on pointless high notes (everything else). Every guitar lick has been done better around 30 odd years ago by too many bands to count, every piano flourish is the same. You could listen to this album, alternatively you could do absolutely anything else with your time and have it mean more to you than this exercise in utter mediocrity.

 

Will Howard