Q- When is a band not a band? A- When it's a collective.
This is not a joke but simply a means of stating the MO of Archive who prefer to operate under a cloak of anonymity rather than kow-tow to the conventional rock-star-as-celebrity system.
Archive formed in London but are based in Paris from where they have built up a sizable European fan-base that hasn't yet extended to their UK roots.
Remarkably this is their 10th album in a career spanning 20 years with numerous line-up changes along the way. The cover photo tells us that they currently consist of six shadowy members.
This album is unlikely the change their cultish standing very much and I suspect that is how they like it. Their press release says they prefer "to inhabit their own world than ride prevailing trends".
The album's production values are high but seem designed to deliberately eschew any notion of a connecting theme or common identity.
It begins promisingly enough with the choppy rhythms and surf guitar of Feel It and the disco-funk of Restriction. The jerky energy and female vocals of Holly Martin on track 3 (Kid Corner) make you think they are really on a roll here.
Thereafter, we are served up a series of curve balls that effectively destroy any sense of flow or cohesion. The fact that they have four different singers adds to the confusion but is only part of the problem. It is simply that the collective will seems undecided as to whether to focus on strident stadium blitzers or intimate love songs.
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The lovey-dovey tunes include End Of Our Days ("I'll be with you to the end of our days" and Black & Blue ("I will always love you").
Alongside this come the juggernaut riffs and swelling crescendos of big numbers such as Crushed and Ruination which are like a cross between Duran Duran and Thirty Seconds To Mars.
A bizarre la-la-la chorus to Greater Goodbye only gives cause for further head-scratching.
By the end my head was in a whirl over this curious mix of styles and moods.
The album is good in parts but ultimately does not stand as a great advert for collective-based music making.
Archive's website
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