Olympians - Reasons To Be Tearful
7/10
Norwich masters of melancholy and high priests of pathos, Olympians, deliver a meandering album that continues in the spirit of confidence-building singles like Dance Like Everybody's Watching And They Hate You, and the motivational Duvet Days.
Opener René Magritte complains of an artist “spray painting hideous cocks on my house”, and sets the marker of where this album is going – a strolling mix of lyrical imagery and modern antipathy, supported with bromidic indifference.
And yet, this becomes one of the most intriguing albums that I have heard this year. Dan Harvey's vocals offer echoes of Roger Waters' frustration with Pink Floyd's inactivity, or of Peter Gabriel just before he split from Genesis. Heartfelt vignettes, from the youthful despair of Rosa Lee - “Your boyfriend.. he's a fucking dick”, to the resignation of Shuffle Pops -“real life is long and unkind”, paint glorious snapshots of lives deep in the doldrums, with each member of the band sharing the contrived responsibility.
Sure, Reasons to be Tearful could have been refined, re-worked and destroyed at the hands of a big name producer, but what would have been the point? As we say in Norfolk, the job's a good 'un.
7/10
