Talk:They Might Be Feral

A underwhelming end to a disappointing album

Flans singing unaccompanied with demo sounding production values on the last track of the album, brings unpleasant memories of the Nanobot's closing track 'Didn't kill me.' The good news is that They Might be Feral is better than that clunker, but not much better. The first 30 seconds aren't great, terrible lyrics, and Flans strumming and singing like a busker. It livens up when the full band come in and the excellent lead guitar distracts us from the increasingly weak lyrics. There's a weird bit when you think what does it remind me of? (Future plans? Yep it's a call back to Nowhere Man by the Beatles) and then we're back to weak lyrics, until we get to "It's a sign, It's a sign" which works somehow and if the song had ended on 1.22. It might be fine, but off we go again. Another steal from Nowhere Man melody and it's overish. I think something else happens at the end, but I can't remember and refuse to listen back. Three times is enough.

Overall a disappointing album. Lyrically a real decline. Musically, it's a bit muso and for a band that goes on about being new wave it's anything but. The giants desperately need to write songs that are not so deliberately obtuse. I'd like a much organic album with accordion rather than keyboards, but also songs that you don't need to look up to find out what they are about. The chopped indie guitar chords also need retiring on new material. Ditto Flans singing song that are too high for his range. Looking at my recent playlist, only three songs will be listened to again: Eyeball (but the Elegant Too Remix); Peggy Guggenheim (which I would have opened the album with) and Telescope (a minor song but fun). For the new album the Johns would be best advised to write and record the songs alone and use the band as and where needed, but also to get a producer who can tell them that the songs aren't strong enough. From interviews, the Giants are keen to stress how they rejected a lot of songs to record new stronger material? How bad was the rejected material... Still the best album cover, I've seen in 30 years. They'll still be fun to see live, but I'm hoping they get a final act, like Sparks have had, where they've recorded some of their best material in the last 15 years. The Giants haven't written a consistently good album since The Spine... (Mr Tuck)