Myths of the Near Future

I hate the production on this one hit wonder album. I don't even like the one hit wonder song.

Was not expecting to like this one as much as I did.

Liked it and kept wanting to Relisten.

I knew 1 or 2 of these guys songs from the ones they play on the Alt station I listen to, but none of these songs on this album I guess. I liked them.

Good rock.

I liked the first half quite a bit. As for the second half, eh.

This was a nice surprise!
I’m always wary of having to listen to music from this era because I find most of it to be dull and unexciting, never pushing artistry to great creative heights but this was the opposite.
This band is actually trying to do something exciting within the framework of rock music.
There’s great energy here and enough experimentation in the recording to keep things always interesting.
Looks like this band didn’t last very long which means they probably burned real bright and probably left at their peak.
More bands need to do that since there’s a lot of late period garbage on this list to sift through.
I definitely need to check out the rest of their discography to see how they progressed!

It’s good, although relatively unspectacular. A couple of good singles and the rest is fairly forgettable.

Magick alone is worth a star

This is mainly just a decent dance-punk album that isn't doing anything too groundbreaking, but it does get a bonus star from me by way of the nostalgia bias, as I thought that barking out esoteric lyrics over hyperactive mish-mashes of production software samples was the most creative thing I'd ever heard when it first came out. I'm not nearly as impressed by it now, but it's still a good time for the most part.

Some of the songs here teeter on the fine line between "abrasive" and "irritating" at times (Four Horsemen in particular being a track I thought tended toward the latter), but I still think these guys had a good knack for hooks, as there are plenty of catchy, danceable tracks on here. All in all, I'm glad to have been reminded that this album exists.

Favourite tracks: Atlantis to Interzone, As Above So Below, Golden Skans

I really disliked listening to this. Generic, dime-a-dozen 2000s indie rock. Not sure why it's on this list. Maybe because it feels like something an old person thinks young people listen to.

Yeah, that's what indie rock sounded like in 2007.

I almost rolled my eyes out my sockets at the thought of _another_ mid to late 2000s UK landfill indie rock band, but this was fun, energetic, frantic. I do love a band where the bass is the driving force, and the basslines on this are powerful.

Standouts were "Gravity's Rainbow" (solid Pynchon reference), and "Golden Skans"

I was initially excited by this album after the first song, but soon the tracks became a bit messy and same-y. I like the experimental aspects and might listen to it again later to see if I feel the same, but for now I think its good but could have been executed a bit better. I heard the Soulwax Remix of Gravity's Rainbow before this which i much prefer to the original on this album. 3/5
After relistens I continue to think this is a 3.

Ah, 2007. L'époque bénie où il suffisait de porter des jeans peints à la bombe, de vider quelques pots de peinture fluorescente sur son public et de crier "RAVE!" pour que le NME vous proclame sauveurs du rock.

Soyons clairs, l'entrée des Klaxons dans cette liste "1001 Albums" n'est pas due à sa profondeur philosophique. Oubliez le titre, personne dans le groupe (ou dans leur public) n'avait lu J.G. Ballard. C'est ici parce que "Myths Of The Near Future" est l'artefact parfait, le document sonore définitif d'un micro-mouvement aussi bref qu'hystérique : le "New Rave".

Pour nous, les vieux de la vieille (rappel : né en 1970, biberonné au post-punk et témoin de la VRAIE rave des 90s), le "New Rave" avait tout de la blague marketing. C'était l'idée que la génération post-Strokes/Libertines découvrait soudainement l'existence des sifflets, des glowsticks et des basses qui font "womp-womp".

Et au milieu de ce chaos coloré, il y avait Klaxons.

Leur plan était simple, presque génial : prendre l'urgence rythmique et les guitares anguleuses de Gang of Four (que j'adore) et les fusionner avec l'énergie débile et les sirènes d'un set de The Prodigy (que j'adore également). C'est du post-punk sous ecstasy, c'est la panique dans une fête foraine.

Mais il faut l'avouer "Myths Of The Near Future" est épuisant, il démarre à 200 à l'heure et ne ralentit jamais. Les premières quinze minutes sont jouissives, on ne peut pas le nier. Quand "Gravity's Rainbow" ou "Atlantis to Interzone" décollent, c'est un bordel juvénile, frénétique et incroyablement amusant. C'est sale, ça bave et c'est mal produit (par James Ford, avant qu'il ne devienne le mec léché derrière Arctic Monkeys).

Et puis il y a "Golden Skans", LE tube. La chanson qui justifie presque à elle seule le Mercury Prize qu'ils ont remporté (au nez et à la barbe d'Amy Winehouse, quand même). C'est une perle pop psychédélique, un moment de grâce pure où leur formule "tout à fond" s'aligne parfaitement.

Mais après... eh bien... c'est répétitif.

L'album n'a qu'une seule idée. Une très bonne idée, certes, mais une seule. Le groupe utilise la même structure, les mêmes sons de clavier Casio vintage, les mêmes harmonies vocales criardes sur presque tous les morceaux. Une fois passé l'effet de surprise, on a l'impression d'entendre la même chanson en boucle, juste avec des titres différents. Les Klaxons ressemblent à des ados qui ont trouvé la boîte de jouets de leurs aînés et qui tapent sur tout en même temps.

C'est marrant cinq minutes, c'est une formidable décharge d'adrénaline. Mais est-ce que ça tient la distance ? Absolument pas car l'album s'essouffle avant même d'être terminé.

"Myths Of The Near Future" est le son d'une fête incroyable à laquelle on est content d'avoir participé, mais dont on est parti avant la fin parce que la musique tournait en rond et que, franchement, on commençait à avoir mal à la tête.

Au final ce sera un 3/5. Car c'est fun, c'est historique pour ce que ça représente (la dernière grande "scène" inventée par la presse anglaise), mais malheureusement ça ne vole pas plus haut qu'un glowstick lancé en l'air.

I like almost everything about this, but I absolutely hate the vocals.

I'd never heard of this, and it was kind of hit-or-miss. Some of it was enjoyable, some of it kind of boring/annoying.

Definitely is skewed positively by nostalgia but I think the singles are genuinely great and the rest of the album is relatively interesting.

So the first couple of times I tried to have it on in the background during a car ride and I couldn't really listen to it. I recognized one of the songs as a radio hit though. I then truly listened to it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a little bit mainstream but it was still solid and with its own sound.

Catchy tunes with good driving beats throughout, but doesn't hold up on close listen. They get a cool riff or chorus and then just repeat them over and over. So, it works best as background music, which isn't really a good thing to say about an album. That said, the only song I didn't like was Atlantis to Interzone - it was a bit much, particularly in the chorus. I'd call it a 3.5 and round up to a 4 because I dug it as something to bop along to while doing other stuff and wouldn't mind revisiting. Favorite tracks: Two Receivers (cool start), Totem on the Timeline, Gravity's Rainbow, Four Horsemen of 2012 (cool end).