THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE - KICK UP THE FIRE AND LET THE FLAMES BREAK LOOSE (2003)

As far as i'm concerned The Cooper Temple Clause's first two albums were enough to make them stand out from the crowd of British indie bands early in the decade. Their sound technically never included them in this genre anyway but the NME helped to place them alongside everyone else, something they do so well. The Cooper Temple Clause were writing much more imaginative, intelligent songs while bands like The Libertines and their "followers" were putting out far more generic, riff based rock and roll and suffered slightly in the shadow i feel.

Their first album is by far my favourite but this album brought with it a lot more melody to their material in place of the messier aggression of the debut and a noticeable increase in their electronic influences.

At times ambient and mellow but seemingly building, layer upon layer to a chaotic climax and with one or two more radio friendly, poppier numbers thrown in for good measure. Their next and also last album would be a major disappointment although the material would sound very good live so a rare listen to this today has reminded me just how much i like this record.