Sunday 24 April 2011

All At Once




My birthday present to myself was a ltd edition vinyl box set of all three Airborne Toxic Event which unfortunately will not be shipped until the 2nd May, however on Friday a surprise popped through the letter box in the form of the cd of the new album All At Once which will be released tomorrow.

Tell us what it's like? I hear you say. All I can say is it is wonderful. There is no way for me to be objective about this band, I just love them. Every time I see them they get better and better and this release certainly builds on the sound from the first album. I can hear a very strong Stuart Adamson influence in some of the sounds emanating from Steven Chen's guitar at times which is no bad thing. The song writing has also moved on from mainly songs about broken relationships on their debut to covering topics of war, the loss of loved ones along as well as  the obligatory songs about the opposite sex.

It is possibly the most consistently good album that I have heard this year, personal favourites include All For A Woman, The Kids Are Ready To Die and the the title track. The only track I'm not sure about is Welcome To Our Wedding Day, I'm not sure what it is, it just doesn't seem to fit it may be the near glam rock intro but apart from that I think that this may be the album that brings the band the sales and attention they deserve.

One thing, I still don't get the Arcade Fire comparisons.

  all at once by The Airborne Toxic Event

1 comment:

Simon said...

I see the Stuart Adamson thing. They sound a little bit like Psychedelic Furs to me, and maybe somebody like late 80s Kitchens Of Distinction.

There's a lot of 80s Indie influences floating around the past couple of years.