The Singles Jukebox

It ain’t pretty…

[Video][Website]
[4.14]

Ian Mathers: Pendulum describe themselves as a “drum and bass/rock” band. “Staind with a vocoder jamming with 65daysofstatic if they ever decided to be epically shit” would be closer to the mark.
[2]

Martin Skidmore: An unusual sound: indie electronica-rock with drum & bass beats. Not a combination I’ve heard before. The beats have plenty of energy and life, but the vocals are nowhere near up to the job — the music demands sharpness and power, but the singing is a whiney drone. Nonetheless, I am impressed with everything else.
[7]

Iain Mew: My initial reaction to the first verse of this was “oh great, Nickelback with beats”. Not completely off target, but once they build up momentum they achieve a thrilling, frenetic sense of abandon that’s enough to forgive a surprising amount of growled nonsense.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Kudos on the segue from Nickelback-esque macho bluster to Cut Copy electrobeat, but all they deserve credit for is reminding us of the bloodline linking arena techno and male angst. No, I don’t know what they mean by “feeding the fire” either.
[3]

Matt Cibula: Skinny, sober, and slavishly devoted to Roni Size beats is no way to go through life, son.
[3]

Edward Okulicz: I’m imagining Daughtry, if they had Linkin Park’s producer and had never heard any drum’n’bass but really wanted to commission some, and then went in a time machine back to 1996 to make the whole nightmare come true. The synth fanfare is pretty sweet, but apart from that, it’s pretty much half over-earnest, half just plain inept.
[4]

Michaelangelo Matos: “Gouache” means “a method of painting using opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a gluelike substance.” “Gauche” means “awkward, gawky, inelegant.” Both more or less apply here.
[3]