Last year Interpol was plagued by a never-ending comparison to Joy Division. Fans of the band, and the band themselves, have heard way too much of this. To some extent, this topic is still ongoing. For Interpol, though, the weight is about to be lifted off their shoulders by European solo artist, Marc Nguyen. To say Colder reeks of Joy Division is not only an understatement, but probably the only way to fully describe what Again sounds like. It’s becoming more and more apparent that maybe there was a lot more to the early 80’s post-punk movement than we all thought. There’s an ever-growing list of bands trying to jump on the eighties train, but Colder may be one that has nailed this sound with greatest of ease.
The opening track, “Crazy Love,” is so in touch with the early Factory Records days, that one could possibly argue that it’s the long lost brother of an early New Order album. By “One Night in Tokyo,” however, I began to be a little let down by the sudden change of paths. The song takes on a dub reggae approach and really shies away from a good thing. Needless to say, it heavily burdens the cohesion of Again and, quite truthfully, hurts the overall possibility of it being one of the year’s best albums. “Shiny Star” begins to slowly pull Again back to its original idea. With “Silicone Sexy,” Nguyen showcases yet another band that has influenced him by way of no-wave pioneers, Suicide. Not until you hear two of the better songs on the album, “Where” and “The Slow Descent,” do you truly realize that this is a great album and sounds exactly like every record you loved from the period of its influences.
Again is probably one of the most derivative albums I’ve ever heard. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. At times I was kind of surprised that Nguyen would make such obvious nods to his favorite bands, yet once I was able to get past this I began to accept it as an album that came out in 1980 rather than focusing on the fact that it just hit shelves several weeks ago.
1. Crazy Love
2. Confusion
3. One Night in Tokyo
4. Shiny Star
5. Version
6. Silicone Sexy
7. Where
8. This River
9. Colder
10. The Slow Descent
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