The Living End
White Noise
2008
Dew Process Records
1. How Do We Know?
2. Raise the Alarm
3. White Noise
4. Moment in the Sun
5. Waiting for the Silence
6. Make the Call
7. Loaded Gun
8. Kid
9. 21st Century
10. Hey Hey Disbeliever
11. Sum of Us
The Living End have never really fit into one genre. From the Punkabilly sound of their self-titled debut to the pop/rock of
State of Emergency, their sound is ever-changing.
White Noise, the band’s fifth studio effort, is no exception to this. They have put aside any past confusion as to their exact genre, and have delivered 11 tracks of straight-up, no-strings-attached Aussie rock.
The gap between the release of
State of Emergency and
White Noise was more than two and a half years. So expectations were high for their new record. The album gets off to a flying start with the opening riff of
How Do We Know, A ballsy Punkabilly track, which if it wasn’t so polished, could have easily fit into the bands debut album. This track sets the tone for the rest of the album; a collection of tracks that relive TLE’s former glory, with slightly more polish and mainstream appeal than their earlier work.
The band has no problem with showing their influences this time around.
How Do We Know is punk, with a hint of ‘80s rock, while the opening riff to
Loaded Gun screams AC/DC in every possible way. I’m not saying that this album is overly derivative of other bands, of that it certainly is not guilty. Every song on the album is made for a band like TLE, with rockabilly guitar riffs, fast, pounding drumbeats, and simple, yet brilliant baselines.
Cheney’s lyrics are as up-front, direct, and literal as ever. This lyrical style is extremely evident on the track
Raise the Alarm (I may not believe in God/It doesn’t mean I’m a lesser person/ I still have a heart/And I know what it feels to be broken). Cheney’s shining moment, however, comes on the heart-wrenching
Loaded Gun, written about Charles Menzes, an innocent man who was shot dead by police at a London tube station after a series of bombings. (And the news report said/The law protected/But the young man never had a clue/And the message to his mother read/Sorry, but your son is dead/This is our job and we were ordered to take his life). Cheney’s lyrics don’t always flow and naturally and directly as this. The lyrics in the song
21st Century almost seem like Cheney is trying to hard to be a “punk”, or politically incorrect. Reading through lyrics, it would appear that he just picked up a newspaper and selected random words that seemed to be relevant to today’s society, and mashed them together into a song (Mohammed Ali/Kurt Cobain/There’s no such thing as cheap cocaine……….. Global warming just ain’t cool/Too much chlorine in the gene pool).
Of course, the album is definitely not without its shortcomings. If there is one track that falls flat on it’s face, it would have to be
Sum of Us. This song sounds like The Beach Boys, The Cat Empire and The Sex Pistols had a love child. This mediocre attempt at a Punk rock band trying to be surf/reggae is a disappointing finish to an album that is otherwise mostly quality.
Overall, this album is a solid rock album that occasionally sinks into a pool of mediocrity, and while fans of the band’s older work still may not be completely satisfied, this is probably as close as The Living End are going to get to returning to their roots.
Tracks to download:
Raise the Alarm
Make the Call
Loaded Gun
Hey Hey Disbeliever
Tracks to skip:
21st Century
Sum of Us
Sound – 9/10
Lyrics – 6/10
Overall impression – 8/10