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The Blackout - The Best In Town

Rating

RIYL

Lostprophets
Story of the Year
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Release Date

06/09/2009

Label

Epitaph

Tracklist

1. ShutTheFuckUppercut
2. Save Our Selves (The Warning)
3. Top Of The World
4. The Fire
5. Children Of The Night
6. Said & Done
7. Silent (When We Speak)
8. I Love Myself And I Wanna Live
9. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
10. We're Going To Hell... So Bring The Sunblock

Users Rating 3 ratings	Your Rating Create an account or log in to rate this album
Recent Ratings
JimmyCooper	Chris Conlan
Aaron Yarborough

As The Blackout release their second full length album, the same problem continues to plague their sound: can they carve their own path away from the all too easy comparisons with Welsh contemporaries Lostprophets? The kinship between the two bands is clear; they tour together, make appearances on each other's songs, shop at the same 'pretentious gent' stores. However, if The Blackout can't do enough to go their own way, Lostprophets would always be triumphant under the 'first come, first heard' rule.

On The Best in Town, The Blackout certainly go a lot harder than the 'prophets, much to the positive. Opener "ShutTheFuckUpperCut" has a stormer of a riff and sets a nice pace to the album. And if you dig this track, there are many more Pantera-lite crunch-outs littered across the rest of the disc.

Another thing the band have going in their favour is their dual lead singers, Sean Smith and Gavin Smith. Working, as all good singing partnerships do, to compliment each other’s contrasting styles, the result lift a number of tracks away from being simply average. A dual vocalist approach is far from new or novel, but there is an appealing nature to Sean and Gavin's interplay.

The Best in Town is far from unenjoyable, but it lacks practically all the factors needed to be considered anywhere near great. It is a good, solid album with a bunch of catchy and sexy choruses. That's not nearly enough to put them out of Lostprophets' shadow, but at least they don't sound like their also-ran clones.

(Please note: this album would have clocked up a 3.5 if not for the painful self-referencing on "Save Our Selves (The Warning)". This is completely unforgivable.)

--Alex Davies