Review: Spector- Moth Boys

Spector are an indie/electronic band who formed in London in 2011. The band is made up of Fred Macpherson (vocals), Jed Cullen (guitar/synth) Thomas Shickle (bass) and Danny Blandy (drums). Since forming, the band have gathered quite a lot of media coverage. They were widely touted as the next big thing in British music and were nominated for BBC Radio 1's sound of 2012 poll.

'Moth Boys' is the bands second studio album after 2012's 'Enjoy It While It Lasts'. Their last album didn't gain as much commercial success as expected and they didn't really live up to the hype that some journalists were surrounding them with.

This album begins with the track 'All The Sad Young Men', this track starts off brooding and downbeat. It then builds into a glorious chorus with a catchy synth line and vocals. It then flows into 'Stay High' which is a smooth and well put together track. I like how the big sound of the chorus contrasts with the slower introduction and bridge sections of the track.

The next track on the album is 'Believe', this uses much more synth sounds than the previous tracks. The chorus isn't as strong on this track, it sounds quite jaring and screechy, thus not fitting well with the rest of the track. The next is much softer and does what the previous track doesn't with the vocals fitting seamlessly with the instruments. It then slows down further for 'Cocktail Party/Heads Interlude'. this is quite a forgettable track, the rhythm is quite generic and the vocals are neither here nor there.

'Bad Boyfriend' is perhaps my favourite track on the album, the make-up of it is quite similar to as old Killers track, with a methodical rhythm and vocals that just bounce over the beat. This sumptuous style doesn't carry over to the next couple of tracks however, these don't really fit together as well. feeling quite disjointed. The vocals and instruments just don't really connect as well as they should.

The quality of the tracks picks up again as the album closes. 'West End' is oozing with style and confidence, containing clever lyrics and well worked synth lines. The closing track has atmospheric empty spaces and wacky sounding instruments and vocals. The final track is much less safe and shows that they can be more creative, and I'd like to see more of this in the future.  

I found this album to have much more of a mature sound to it than previous material from the band. I also believe that this album works better as a whole piece than the previous one did but I still feel that it's lacking some of the soul that's needed. There also needs to be more consistency with quality of the tracks and the flow of the album.

Highs:
All The Sad Young Men
Bad Boyfriend

Lows:
Believe
Decade of Decay

Rating: 7.5/10