AMOR VINCIT OMNIA

After their stunning debut Pure Reason Revolution made a complete turn and decided to launch a career in Britpop. Of course that part of their sound was already present on The Dark Third, but there it was fortified with lots of spacey arrangements and proggyness. So, from a prog perspective, the career move sure won't be applauded loudly, but the worst part of the news is that, even for Britpop standards, this album isn't really good.

The music changed to short pop songs, driven by repetitive pounding beats, short snappy riffs, and a battery of synths and effect to replace the gorgeous spacey guitars. It's an unfortunate downgrade from the previous album and the songwriting is very, very mediocre. Deus Ex Machina is real fun though, catchy, engaging and danceable, but the bulk of the material is poor. No, if I want to hear this style of music I'll stick to Kasabian's debut, which must have been an obvious inspiration here, next to New Order's poppy side. Another huge problem is that despite the musical change, the vocal arrangements and melodies remained identical to the debut, 'identical' meaning that indeed, some vocal lines are probably exactly the same. The phrasing, vocalisations, harmonies have not changed one bit and sound monotonous and uninspired.

Derivative, predictable, unimaginative. No that's not what I want to hear. The problem is not that that PRR turned Britpop, the problem is that it is poor Britpop. Luckily for PRR there are plenty of weaker albums in this style so they still get away with two stars.