Bands need to stop trying to sound like Gang of Four. It's a fact that they will never be Gang of Four, and no one ever will be. Of course there will be cover bands, but those songs are Gang of Four songs. Leave the repetition for Clear Channel Radio, such memorable music isn't meant to be over played.
The first time I listened to The Death of a Party I have to admit I was interested. There is a piece of dance-punk in us all isn't there? The bass lines are forever with us just as are the move busting drumbeats and the rhythm snapping guitars. Even if you have never heard Gang of Four, you know who they are. You have heard them in your sleep if not in your dreams.
So the question is, how does The Death of a Party tie into all of this?
Well, if you haven't already guessed it, there are similarities. It's very painful to listen to this whole album for a number of reasons. Something that no band should ever do is try to fit their genre. Genres are created only because someone, who ever that deviant fellow (or fellows) may be, stepped outside of that forbidden box. That's why we have sub genres. Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a history on genres, even though it's beginning to sound like it.
Everything about The Death of a Party has been heard. If you sat Bloc Party and Gang of Four in a box, put them in a back of a beat up Cadillac and then pushed it off a sky scraper, then whatever sound is made right before the crash of the unfortunate vehicle, is The Death of a Party. The band name is way too typical. Again, it fits the genre far too well. The lyrics are cheap rip offs of any Blood Brothers song. For example,
In Exhibt A she states; she says, "You'll be the fox." / In Exhibit B she states; she says, "I'll be the hound, & / I'll find you a faceless crowd, / Yeah you know I'll hunt you down."
Sound familiar? Oh wait, I've heard this before. Hmm.
The lyrics as a whole are hindered and restricted. If lyrically, dance punk was a block of cheese, then imagine that cheese being graded and then manufactured to all of the human population. Repeat. Rinse and then wash. Welcome to The Death of a Party Burger, how may I help you?
The songs seem to have this consistent pattern of starting off slow and unusual and then building up. Too much of that causes seizures. Three out of the eleven songs are memorable and eventually you get to a point where you say to yourself, wait I've heard this before. You're right, you have. And then you just want the album to end because you know what comes next. And knowing what the surprise is, in the end, is never really as fun as the surprise itself.
I know I've been bashing this band pretty horribly. But they aren't the worst band on the face of this earth. Like I had mentioned before, there are memorable songs. For instance, "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies" is a very detonative song. It's dynamite and a half. "Emerald Crowns" though a slower, more down beat song, has its originality to it.
I think all in all, the band itself needs to break away from trying to impress their friends. They should grow musically, because in all actuality they have potential. They are obviously talented individuals, however, it is important to be original, or else you are a Clear Channel zombie, and no one likes Clear Channel, or zombies.
