Fightstar - One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours (Review:Elliott)

I've been told to give Fightstar a listen on numerous occassions. The first song of theirs I actually bothered to listen to was "Palahniuk's Laughter". Bearing in mind this was almost 3 years ago, I was pretty unimpressed. Given that my musical tastes have changed drastically since that first time, I thought it only fair to give them another listen after seeing this album uploaded by Dan.

The album gets off to a mediocre start with "99" although admittedly there was something about Charlie's voice that I quite liked. "We Apologise For Nothing" is one of the more commercial songs on the album - hence it's release as one of the singles. It's rather annoying that the song is the second song on the album as it gives Dan example with which he can say "every second track on an album is released as a single".

When I was in Belgium a week ago, I had my iPod on shuffle - something I very rarely do - and I heard the opening to "Floods". I thought to myself "ah I quite like this Muse song". I'm not sure whether I was disappointed or pleasantly surprised to find out that it was actually Fightstar. Having listened to it again, it annoys me greatly as I feel that they've attempted to copy Muse. I used to be a fan of Muse but grew out of their music when introduced to bands like Radiohead, therefore I don't really enjoy the piano in "Floods" although the rest of the song is equally as average.

About halfway through "One Day Son", I hear the same Muse influence resurfacing, however, on the whole I quite enjoyed this song. The birds made the screams at the beginning of "Deathcar" catch me off guard. Very clever Fightstar. "Deathcar" gets off to such a good start and in comparison to the rest of the album, it's a lot heavier. Disappointingly, the anger and energy is lost when Charlie sporadically reverts back to singing. I would much rather the majority of the album took this angrier approach but I'm not sure it would do Charlie's pleasant singing voice any good.

Although I feel like I should enjoy "I am the message", I really don't. The lyrics on "You & I" are ridiculous: "It feels as black as the thoughts I had/When the road was as dark as my fears". Having listened to their latest single "Mercury Summer", I really can't take these lyrics seriously. The introduction to "Amaze Us" seems heavily Rage Against The Machine influenced but from then on, the song becomes boring. The rest of the album follows suit in that it does nothing to entertain me.

After only 5 minutes of listening to it, I really can't remember anything about this album that I actually enjoy. Charlie's voice is good in parts and the music is average but I just don't think there is anything about this album that really catches my attention and makes me want to hear more. I think the problem with this album is that the band have attempted to use their inspirations to force an album. It feels like Fightstar don't really have a sound and are just attempting to recreate music that they are influenced by. They don't know whether they want to be a metal band or a pop/rock band. I sincerely suggest that they look into becoming a tribute band -after deciding which band they want to copy - because the confusion in this album is insane. Either that, or they could spend a bit more time establishing their own style and stick with it - which, when it does appear on the album is below average. Is it any wonder that they attempt to reel listeners in by copying introductions of other bands?

2/5