Lightspeed Champion
Ex-Test Iscles member, Dev Hynes, has created one of my favourite albums in the last year. It is a beautiful album consisting of Dev’s dreams and experiences. The first single(“Galaxy Of The Lost”), and the first “proper” track on the album, is brilliant. Like most of the album, the lyrics of the song are sung sweetly and at first glance look normal, but one closer exception there are some shocking lines. “As we kiss and I’m sick in your mouth” is one such line bringing quite horrific imagery. Another such line is “I feel the nigger eyes staring, makes me want to rip off my skin, sketchy motherfucker…”. Though this all sounds harsh and almost like black metal lyrics, it is all wrapped around gentle guitars, other stings and sometimes whole orchestras. Dev uses pianos, violins, guitars, flutes, female vocals and many other instruments in the album. His voice is also really good, its not exceptional, but has got a lot of personality to it.
Midnight Surpise, one of my favourite tracks on the album, is a really good 10 minute track with lots of repetition. And even though there is repeition, instruments keep getting added and the tempo keeps getting faster, this track really gets you hooked. This is one of the only tracks with some electric guitar in it. It fits well, only playing for about a minute, but with lots of distortion. The basic verse at the beginning is so catchy that this was the first track I was drawn to on the album. The lyrics of “Devil Tricks For A Bitch” are about the immature problems of a teenager, musically, however, this piece is very mature, with a whole orchestra joining in towards the end of the piece.
Nearly all the songs on this CD are beautiful, with great lyrics and beautiful music. I just would like to say that the only trach I didn’t enjoy was “Salty Water”. This is only a preference for me because, according to NME, this was their favourite track on the album. I think was this is a definite must buy. Dev Hynes has now become one of my favourite musicians of the last 10 years, up there with Carl Barat and Alex Turner. My pics are “Galaxy of the Lost” and “Dry Lips”. Other really good tracks are “Midnight Surprise”, “Devil Tricks For A Bitch”, “Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk” and “Let The Bitches Die”.
