For Futureheads fans you’d be happy to know, or maybe not, that the formula remains the same as previous albums for this Sunderland quartet. Released on their own label Nul Records, title-track ‘The Chaos‘ starts things off with poppy hooks, steady rock beat drumming and positive vocal stylings. Meanwhile, the rest of the disk stays on the same track, and it’s business as usual for The Futureheads and as such, their bombastic pop-rock sound envelopes the whole album without too much change in terms of tone and pace.
On the whole, ‘The Chaos‘ is very repetitive and unfortunately for this scribe, the tracks all blend into one, with a couple of annoyingly addictive exceptions. These come in the form of ‘The Sun Goes Down‘ which has got this infecting 80s upbeat alt-pop vibe to it (ala’ Flock Of Seagulls…yeah, that’s right!), and honestly we can’t really fault the lead single ‘Heartbeat Song‘ (we’ve tried), because it’s just so darn catchy with its genre-defying structure. Unfortunately, the rest of the album leaves us firmly grounded.
There’s little to no originality in other tracks leading up to closer ‘Jupiter‘ and the style throughout certainly can’t be classed as post-punk. Of course, we are always open to giving bands a chance and seeing where they turn, it’s always a learning process and it’s about evolving. We just hope to see a different turn from these lads on their next effort. For every person who likes the usual indie-pop sing-a-long chorus with simple hooks you will not be disappointed, but for those looking for originality within the stagnant UK indie circuit, you won’t find it on this album.
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