Children Collide - Monument (28/05/2012)
Longevity is a difficult thing to acquire in the music industry these days particularly in the Australian scene, many artists struggle to make a successful sophomore album let alone continue on to more releases. Melbourne trio Children Collide have managed to overcome this with their third LP ‘Monument’ and continue to evolve on their musical direction.
They’ve always been known for providing solid rock songs but with opening track ‘The Flat Earth’ it’s evident that the band are moving into a more experimental phase with their sound. While ‘Cherries’ has a static guitar sound and throbbing, catchy drum beats provided by Ryan Ceasar who recently left the band.
Ceasar’s departure does put a slight dent in things as it’ll be difficult to find a suitable replacement for touring purposes who can replicate his sound and energy. But ‘Prussian Blue’ and ‘Summer Assassin’ are good examples of where the guitar is the driving force in the song and takes the forefront of your attention.
‘Monument’ incorporates droney guitars and psychedelic synth sounds reminiscent of UK band The Music or even on occasion The Brian Jonestown Massacre but still manages to retain its distinctly Children Collide-feel courtesy of Johnny Mackay’s vocals. ‘Sphere Of Influence’ is 1 minute 10 seconds worth of loud fuzzy guitars and Mackay working his voice up from a monotonous spoken word to yelling by the last few lines. There’s no real structure to the song, it’s just lyrics and a lot of noise and it’s probably a good thing it’s so short.
While ‘Smooth Gown’’s lyrics are hardly discernible through all the vocoder style distortion and just seems to drag. Unlike their debut ‘The Long Now’ which was teeming with hits this record is not quite as distinctly so radio-single friendly.
Their lead single choice from this record ‘Sword To A Gunfight’ definitely sounds more like the band of old, with a distinctly structured verse and chorus layout and moody post-punk rock edge. Their next single release will be interesting to see, I’d potentially like to see ‘My Heart Came Alive’ as it’s a little lighter in mood and has a great shiny chorus courtesy of some high-hat drumming from Ceasar and well balanced production from Woody Annison and his crew at Red Door Sounds.
The last track ‘Terrible Lizard’ is a wall of sound instrumental that could’ve come out of the 1960’s era and been a Pink Floyd substitute.
‘Monument’ as a record though has a very distinct front and back half. The last few songs on the record are significantly weaker than and nowhere near as captivating as the main portion of the album. Overall this record is a definite step forward in progression and maturity and Children Collide fans will definitely warm to it, whether immediately or eventually. As a stand-alone LP it may be awkward for new fans to latch onto without understanding the band’s history.
Carina Nilma
They’ve always been known for providing solid rock songs but with opening track ‘The Flat Earth’ it’s evident that the band are moving into a more experimental phase with their sound. While ‘Cherries’ has a static guitar sound and throbbing, catchy drum beats provided by Ryan Ceasar who recently left the band.
Ceasar’s departure does put a slight dent in things as it’ll be difficult to find a suitable replacement for touring purposes who can replicate his sound and energy. But ‘Prussian Blue’ and ‘Summer Assassin’ are good examples of where the guitar is the driving force in the song and takes the forefront of your attention.
‘Monument’ incorporates droney guitars and psychedelic synth sounds reminiscent of UK band The Music or even on occasion The Brian Jonestown Massacre but still manages to retain its distinctly Children Collide-feel courtesy of Johnny Mackay’s vocals. ‘Sphere Of Influence’ is 1 minute 10 seconds worth of loud fuzzy guitars and Mackay working his voice up from a monotonous spoken word to yelling by the last few lines. There’s no real structure to the song, it’s just lyrics and a lot of noise and it’s probably a good thing it’s so short.
While ‘Smooth Gown’’s lyrics are hardly discernible through all the vocoder style distortion and just seems to drag. Unlike their debut ‘The Long Now’ which was teeming with hits this record is not quite as distinctly so radio-single friendly.
Their lead single choice from this record ‘Sword To A Gunfight’ definitely sounds more like the band of old, with a distinctly structured verse and chorus layout and moody post-punk rock edge. Their next single release will be interesting to see, I’d potentially like to see ‘My Heart Came Alive’ as it’s a little lighter in mood and has a great shiny chorus courtesy of some high-hat drumming from Ceasar and well balanced production from Woody Annison and his crew at Red Door Sounds.
The last track ‘Terrible Lizard’ is a wall of sound instrumental that could’ve come out of the 1960’s era and been a Pink Floyd substitute.
‘Monument’ as a record though has a very distinct front and back half. The last few songs on the record are significantly weaker than and nowhere near as captivating as the main portion of the album. Overall this record is a definite step forward in progression and maturity and Children Collide fans will definitely warm to it, whether immediately or eventually. As a stand-alone LP it may be awkward for new fans to latch onto without understanding the band’s history.
Carina Nilma