These New Puritans- "Hidden"

Third (and least important post) of the day, Just endured the entirity of These New Puritans new album "Hidden". Other than having some at times interesting drumming it was pretty attrocious, a weird mix of dark shoe gaze and concept album with horrific lyrics/ vocals. Fuzzy bass with uninspiring key melodies, attempts at electronic elements and drone to build suspense don't really work. The worst bit is the choir like back vocals, which are really weak. The "war" drums, are admittedly pretty good at times, but overdone on the album. Basic format for the songs is DRUMS AND DRONE BUILD UP (with the guy talking over the top like he's bored), stop for some electronic bit or weird folk vocals with some flute, DRUMS AGAIN. Every song has this attempt at a build up but doesn't go anywhere and they all sound a lot like the last. There was none of the "pop" that made the last album bearable.



Yeah so that's the first 10 songs on the album, then I got to track 11... it's called "5" and its pretty brilliant. Sounds like a tyondai braxton song. Its actually amazing, particulaly the start. Makes me thing maybe they were on the cusp of something brilliant and if they'd taken a step back and not tried to make it fit a concept (this weird medieval war thing... I don't even know what the concept was) it would have been alright. Cutting out the vocals and focussing on the melody couldn't hurt too.

Here's a link to the album (just delete the first 10 tracks)