Album Review: The Futureheads

While I was tracking down the Kate Bush news yesterday, I kept coming across these articles talking about a new British band that did a great cover of "The Hounds of Love." I decided to track down the song out of curiosity and discovered The Futureheads.
I'm sure that I'm late to the party as usual, but hopefully the hype won't keep you away from this great album. It would be easy to write these guys off by focusing on their obvious influences. But they bring in so many varied sounds that they have appropriated but not imitated, that it coelesese into a pastiche of the spirits of their influences rather than their sound. "Le Garage" opens the album with a Clash ragga rythmn, but "Robot" quickly dials up the urgency with it's staccato Gang of Four/Mission of Burma guitar (GOF guitarist Andy Gill produced several tracks). Before you pass them off as another garage band, "Descent Days and Nights," "Meantime," and "Alms" with it's 90's gossymr guitar show a more theatrical vocal delivery that reminds me of the harmonies that Queen or more recently New Pornographers have created. Lyrically and visually The Futureheads draw upon Bauhaus (the art movement, not the band) inspired ideas of precise inevitability without falling into the campiness of Servotron or Man or Astroman. The production is slick, but not processed, and the songs' staccato rhythmns create jerky beats that are immediately catchy without being pop confections.
Hit the link and sample the entire album.