Released: 05/09

Just as you should never judge a book by its cover, you should never judge a band by its name. The Airborne Toxic Event are not a cold war revivalist metal band but are in fact five Los Angelinos serving up a slice of guitar and strings indie-Americana. The band have spent the last two years building a reputation on indie labels and after frontman Mikel Jollet “literally looked death in the eye” (ahem) they decided they wanted to be famous and signed to a major label.

The opening track, Wishing Well, is a string laden weepy about being depressed at a bus stop. This sets the tone for the rest of the album, sweeping guitars and keyboards combined with parochial lyrics of woe and love lost. Imagine Bright Eyes without the aching emotional desolation. Despite claiming to have a one-woman string section the album is surprisingly guitar heavy, recalling The Strokes or The National as demonstrated on songs like Papillon and This Is Nowhere. Lyrically this album is word-heavy and evocative, articulating the narrative of the song and avoiding obvious clichés. With Morrissey-esque titles such as Happiness Is Overrated and Does This Mean We’re Moving On?, the album whisks you to late night Echo Park, a world of pain, drunkenness and fleeting romances in 24 hour coffee shops.

However, the album has been over produced in an obvious attempt to sell it to the U2/Coldplay/Razorlight crowd, therefore producing sure fire hits and sell out shows. As a result the band have created a debut album which is fully-formed but lacks rawness and emotional depth. The slickness does The Airborne Toxic Event a disservice and will mean it is unlikely they can take their place in the canon of credible American indie bands. It will sell records but leaves them no room to develop artistically.

www.theairbornetoxicevent.com

Hazel Goodfellow