You know those albums that you've decidedly hated the first time around? You know, it just doesn't click. It's a mess of unfamiliar noise. Take it out, move onto something more familiar. Then bam, two or three days later you're kicking around thinking about that album with biting curiosity. Were you unfair? Only one way to find out. You pop it back in with a grimace and like a flood light that chokes your pupils to pin pricks, all of a sudden you're astounded by just how wrong you were. That is exactly the surprise I've been graced with listening to American Princes' fourth release, 'Other People'.
My initial reaction was that these boys have listened to too much David Bowie and given too little thought on what they have to offer over their influences. The trick with this album is that it takes time to soak in and appreciate the neatly packaged nuances that make their music a joy. Be it the ticking time bomb of sonic doom they keep strapped to their chests or the heart-on-your-sleeve choruses on tracks such as 'Real Love' and the melt in your mouth 'Watch As They Go'. These boys have done their homework to be sure. No, their sound is really nothing terribly new. It's mostly familiar territory and while we can't regard their assault as anything pioneering, they're terribly good at what they do and it'd be unfair to deny them the tune of their souls. Listen and you will find traces of nefarious alternative innovators like Boys Next Door and their bad boy swagger laced with the dramatic bare-it-all goodness of David Bowie and the shaky baritone of Robert Smith. Here is glam rock royalty rebirth in a post-apocalyptic society; our new romantic era. Presenting songs that will surely inspire pumping fists against neon lights unlike anything we've seen since 1987.
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