England’s Guillemots could never be accused of lacking ambition. Their lovely first album may have been filled with lush orchestration and sweeping strings, but it is made to feel almost lo-fi in comparison to their follow-up offering. As opening track Kriss Kross bursts from the speakers sounding a bit Bollywood, a bit Broadway, a bit disco and a bit glam rock all at the same time, it is abundantly clear this band doesn’t adhere to the idea of less being more.
Amid some chunky, Timbaland-style beats (seriously), Red immediately grabs its listener by the throat with its vitality. However, in spite of some great hooks and infectious choruses, particularly on standout track Get Over It, a problem soon becomes apparent. Simply, there is too much going on here. Tracks pull in so many different directions and are crammed with so many ideas that they are often chaotic and slightly overbearing, especially as the album progresses and leaps between big eighties-sounding pop, prog-rock, pounding beats and R & B. At times the production is rather cluttered and obtrusive, which is a real shame because at the heart of this record there are some genuinely great songs but they are suffocated by such an overtly grandiose approach.
There is enough happening on Red to fill about three albums, and trying to squeeze everything into these 11 tracks merely leaves them feeling fussy and over-egged. While there are some interesting and even breathtaking moments, Red is often baffling and incoherent. Still, full marks for ambition.
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