Reverend and the Makers - The Death Of A King
The sixth album by Reverend & The Makers is a ragtag hodgepodge of vignettes that showcases impressive versatility as well as an annoying amount of indecisiveness. Song writing like this can only be described as chameleonic: sometimes reminiscent of the The Black Keys and The Last Shadow Puppets, at others marbled by psychedelic undercurrents like the hauntings of The Beatles’ acid-infused heyday. They are a band that feel like several other better bands were ingested and puked back up onto vinyl.
Monkey See, Monkey Do could be a Kasabian B-side, Carlene has a cabaret vibe, Juliet Knows sounds like a lament by The Kinks and Black Flowers feels like an afterthought by Tame Impala. Whilst you have to applaud their musical innovation and foot-thumpin’ catchy tunes, you will also find yourself wondering with increasing frustration if they will ever settle on a bloody genre.
I’m all for innovation, and the more a band can slip the straightjacket of expectation the better, but when each song is so utterly different that the band sacrifices having a unique and instantly identifiable sound, then perhaps they have reached the point where experimentation trumps originality. As such, I have decided to land them with the label of rock agnostics, or 'Rocknostics'.
5/10
