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IAMX
"Volatile Times"
Format:
CD
Online date:
15/3 2011
Label:
61 Seconds
Genre:
electro, rock
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A reviewer's dilemma
IAMX first album, "Kiss + Swallow" (2004), was mainly written during the Sneaker Pimps era and while follow up "The Alternative" (2006) still contained traces of Sneaker Pimps were "Kingdom of Welcome Addiction" (2009) the first album with a completely new sound.
There's a lot of talk about the difficult second or third album for an artist when they are trying to follow up earlier success. One thing that raises questions in my head is how you manage to follow up the peak of your career? This is of course something that can only be looked upon in retrospect and thinking like that would probably be the end of the artist in question. Despite that I cannot help thinking that "Kingdom of Welcome Addiction" will be seen upon as the highlight of Chris Corner´s career. With 11 fantastic tracks from electropunk explosions to fragile ballads, this album is and always will be a complete album. Musically "Volatile Times" definitely continues on this path and just like the predecessor this is no album that grips you instantly.
The songs grow for each time you listen and even if they are not of the same standard as the predecessor, this is definitely a good album. "Music People", "Volatile Times", "Fire and Whispers", "Into Asylum" and the first single "Ghosts of Utopia" are all really good tracks. I also like the slightly theatrical "Bernadette" and the final song, the glowing "Oh beautiful town". All in all this is an album with high quality straight through. The only problem is that if you start comparing the new album with the older, the result is slightly disappointing. Is it really ok to be disappointed on an album this good?
If we reconnect to my question above, this is probably something that complicates this review more that it complicates for the artist in question. I had really high expectations on this album and with the brilliant predecessor in mind the result could only be worse. Thus I am convinced that with a little distance to "Volatile Times" I would let go of all comparisons. Chris Corner is a song writer way better than most artists and I look forward to more releases in the
future even if they can't beat all that has been.
/Thobias Wollhed
Check CDDB tracklists for this record:
IAMX"Volatile Times"
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