The Singles Jukebox

St Albans’ eight-legged noise machine returns…

[Video][Website]
[3.67]

Ian Mathers: Enter Shikari continue to suffer from the fact that combining ‘post-hardcore’ with hyperspeed trance synths has never, ever even seemed like a good idea, and “Juggernauts” is further hampered by the fact that its lyrics seem to be wooly-headed political thinking of the kind that makes me despair for our future (what are you even trying to accomplish, guys? It helps if you know that!), and loses further points due to the fact that one of their singers appears to be Mike fucking Skinner.
[1]

Martin Kavka: So here I am, thinking that this is yet another in a wonderful series of songs on The Single Jukebox that has introduced me to the vibrant genre of post-metal (or whatever this metal/hardcore/grunge combination genre is called), and all ready to give it an 8. And then the band suddenly yells “WHAT THE HELL WILL HAPPEN NOW?” To this the singer can’t but respond, “I REALLY DON’T KNOW, MAN!” I giggled myself to tears. While I hope this becomes a hit (that line will be a neat random way to wake up my students), any band that spells its name in hieroglyphs deserves heaps of ridicule.
[3]

Michaelangelo Matos: Swore to whomever that this was Ed Kowalczyk of Live for the first 20 seconds or so. I like the spoken bit, actually — it works as a change of pace, if not so well as music. Of course, when he screeches after the first chorus — not to mention all those sproingy synth glugs the song lives and dies on — I should have immediately grokked that these guys were, as per Wikipedia, combining post-hardcore and trance. Someone revoke my license for this immediately.
[4]

Iain Mew: Pummeling electro-rock intro is pure Muse, talky bits show an unlikely resemblence to Art Brut and when they start bashing you round the head with earnest but rather dumb political lyrics it all gets a bit System of a Down. Problem is that Enter Shikari never quite get as joyfully preposterous as any of the above.
[4]

Chuck Eddy: So is this “new rave”? In increasing order of annoyance: synth fireworks < backup shouting < monologue part < whiney singing < soar-throat screaming < fuzzy production crap. What a mess. Though if it’s both a mess and a UK hit, that might be interesting. At least in theory.
[3]

Hillary Brown: Toss the talky bits and the slow parts for straight-ahead angry thrashy speed, and we might have something. Theoretically, they show the faster louder parts off by comparison, but it don’t work.
[5]

Doug Robertson: Despite initially sounding like an hyperactive blast of ADHD pow pop bleep bang brilliance, after about a minute the Ritalin kicks in and, much like a child who’s made a determined effort to run away from home, finds itself standing at a strange crossroads unable to think of anything else but “Umm, now what happens”. But all’s not lost. If we all club together and get a massive syringe of liquid sugar to inject them with then they’re gonna do something so amazing that only the word “Awesome” will be able to describe it. Or they’ll spend three minutes talking about bees in a buzzy voice. Either way, I’d buy it.
[6]

Additional Scores

Anthony Easton: [3]
Martin Skidmore: [4]