Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Artrock | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 162 / 7-8-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 7.5/10 | Label: Nautical | Autor: SaS
Is this band an enrichment or is it just shameless? This question must be allowed on the second album of the British all-star combo Halo Blind, because there has certainly been no other band in the last 15 years that has managed to record an album so close to Radiohead's work in the mid-90s. There were voices that accused the British New Artrock institution of having sacrificed their sense of melodies to a blind experimental mania after "The Bends", at the latest after "OK Computer". Obviously Halo Blind also belong to this faction, because "Occupying Forces" sounds like the legitimate successor of "The Bends". Instead of branding the band, consisting of veterans like Gavin Griffiths and Chris Johnson, as plagiarisers, one should rather thank them. Because ultimately they invent a parallel world in which they ask the hypothetical question how Radiohead would sound today if they had taken a different path. And that's good, because the album is almost perfect: It is full of wonderful melodies, great arrangements and surprising harmonic ideas - and every song convinces.
Top track: Downpour
