Sunday, 14 September 2008

Review - The Automatic - This Is A Fix

The Automatic - This Is A Fix

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6 out of 10

This was never going to be an easy album, in fact, it's taken most of my energy not to put a 'what's that coming over the monster' gag in already. I will however disregard that for the time being. 'This Is A Fix' ultimately is not a bad album; there's some pretty solid hooks, great vocal interplay courtesy of recently appointment Yourcodenameis:Milo front-man Paul Mullen, and you know what? There was a great lead single in 'Steve McQueen' too.

Other than this though, it's a bit average. Being a fan of Yourcodenameis:Milo I had expected there to be a more, well, serious side to the record. Though there is certainly suggestion of maturity, specifically on tracks ’Make The Mistakes’ and ’Light Entertainment’ there is sadly not enough to give the band the credibility that they so clearly crave.

That's the thing about The Automatic for me, they seem to want to push boundaries and they often site their influences as Refused, Million Dead, Trail Of Dead. and in fact at times on the first record they even sounded reminiscent of the Blood Brothers /In My Eyes, but however they probably made a LOT of money from 'Monster' and I suppose it simply doesn't make sense to disregard this.

I genuinely have a lot of hope for this incarnation of The Automatic; there are a lot of good ideas and some pretty decent tunes. The album is fine; in fact it's pretty good, just not amazing.

Listen: www.myspace.com/theautomatic

Tracklist:
1. Responsible Citizen
2. Steve McQueen
3. Accessories
4. Magazines
5. This Ship
6. In The Mountains
7. This Is A Fix
8. Bad Guy
9. Sleepwalking
10. Secret Police
11. Make The Mistakes
12. Light Entertainment

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