Enter Shikari new album 'The Spark'

[chemicalpictures 1888]

Hey fellas, what's up?! any Shikari fans out there?

 

Their new album just dropped today, and I'm still recollecting my thoughts on it.

 

To start, I'd say this one is most definitely a grower, so this ain't my final opinion yet. This is a fundamentally different album, mainly because of the composition style. Rou himself said they were going for a simpler, "less is more" vibe, and I think they fully achieved that idea (since I liked so many tracks), even if I don't think it was the best course of action. Lyrically, this is the usual ES: clever (Undercover Agents), heartfelt (An Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces), always taking sides (Take My Country Back), sending relevant positive messages (Airfield), besides one or two less interesting ones (Rabble Rouser). Musically, we first gotta talk about the best track in the album IMHO. 'Take my Country Back' is the perfect mix of old and new Shikari. Tempo changes, Strong drums, catchy as fuck chorus... I BET you will keep shouting "GET UP GET UP AND FEEL THE RIIIIIISING TIDE" like crazy, it's tailor-made for arena concert. I can aready imagine those live edits the guys do so well making this one a staple on their concerts from now on. Brilliant track. That being said, I don't know if the decision to simplify the compositions was the best one. Most of the tracks are great, but they are missing some kind of kick. some kind of OMPH, a breakdown here and there, some of the usual craziness. You can see that clearly on 'Live Outside' and 'Rabble Rouser'. Both are great tracks, but they have a few verses that sound so empty, if you know what I mean. The album ver. of 'RR' is much better than the edit one, but I still feel it lacked a better guitarwork, it lacked the good mess Shikari is known for. But that's okay, the guys are experimenting, it's a special moment for them. This is a result of personal experiences and emotions. I think they are fully aware of what makes us tick, and if they somehow get what they've learned here and mix with their wild side, I'm positive it will only make a better future Shikari.

 

Best track: Take my Country Back;

Above average: Live Outside, Airfield, Rabble Rouser, Undercover Agents, An Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces;

Average: The Sights, Shinrin-yoku;

Below average: Revolt of the Atoms;

 

 

I recommend looking up for a 320kbps rip tho, for full Shikari pleasure.

 

Would love to hear some thoughts on it!

[togz 2004]

I've only listened it through twice so far, but I'm diggin it. I mean... Music is so subjective based on peoples emotions, how they connect, and what mood they're in and this is definitely an easy listening vibe for me. I do have to agree that some tracks feel like they're missing that small boost or spice. But overall I think it's a good move on their end. As long as they're having fun.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2017 by togz

[togz 2004]

24 minutes ago, chemicalpictures said:

 

 

"is kind of cel­e­brat­ing na­ture and its health-giv­ing prop­er­ties – whether phys­i­cal or men­tal health, it’s so im­por­tant for both.and I feel like in our eco­nomic sys­tem and in our cul­ture, it isn’t cel­e­brated as much as it should be. It’s our lit­tle ode to na­ture and the beauty of it. Mu­si­cally, it’s quite dif­fer­ent for us – well, is it? I don’t know what’s dif­fer­ent any­more (laughs). there’s all sorts go­ing on in this song. I love words and phrases that don’t trans­late word-for-word, or there isn’t re­ally a phrase in English. an­other Ja­pa­nese word like that is ‘Yu­gen’. It’s for if you’re think­ing about the uni­verse, or the sheer ex­panse of it, and you hit a wall be­cause our fee­ble minds just can’t deal with it. Some­times it can be an all-en­com­pass­ing love for the uni­verse, or ‘How can it be this big?! I don’t un­der­stand it!’ – just a delu­sional be­wil­der­ment. that’s what the last line is all about: ‘we are the dust on the stained glass win­dows / Try­ing to com­pre­hend the cathe­dral.’ So just play­ing on those two lovely Ja­pa­nese phrases."

 

 

Yeah, there's some real good interviews out there about what they went through during the creation of this album. It's probably their most personal release so far. They weren't holding on the emotional punches on 'Airfield' and 'Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces', lol

Thanks for posting this too. Is there a full version of this interview? I think it's pretty amazing actually how he connected with those phrases so much. Airfield is intense for sure

[chemicalpictures 1888]

5 minutes ago, togz said:

Thanks for posting this too. Is there a full version of this interview? I think it's pretty amazing actually how he connected with those phrases so much. Airfield is intense for sure

Of course!

 

Track by track on kerrang: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/kerrang-uk/20170805/281586650679120

 

In depth of the making of the album: http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-09-22/enter-shikari-alternative-music-is-no-longer-an-alternative

 

 

[Furik 832]

I’m that one guy that hates it because it’s not Common Dreads pt.2. Imho their worst. Even more so than their last album. Can’t even remember the name. 

[eiheartx 1310]

We know for ages that they would go the pop route; they want to fulfill arenas now, and spread their message to a massive audience, so it's not really a surprise (what's surprise me the most are the comments about it, it's like people never heard warm smiles or others softer songs they made in the past, and that they were "that" heavy all the time from start to finish. bruh).
I received my copy one day early and it's on repeat ever since, it's a banger. When Live Outside came out I hated it but damn, i wanna live outsiiideeee wouldn't leave me alone and I ended up singing all day the song. Now I love it xD Rou's been through hell and you can hear that.
On serious thought, why is everyong hating on Revolt of The Atoms? Damn, am I the only one to love this song? Just, the lyrics, at first listen I thought he said "my long cock" (for the record, it's alarm clock), and I was like, why is he talking about his long cock wtf bro xDDD
No need to talk about Rabble Rouser music video, it's shit and they should be ashamed to have released it to the public in the first place.

[chemicalpictures 1888]

On 24/09/2017 at 1:46 PM, eiheartx said:

We know for ages that they would go the pop route; they want to fulfill arenas now, and spread their message to a massive audience, so it's not really a surprise (what's surprise me the most are the comments about it, it's like people never heard warm smiles or others softer songs they made in the past, and that they were "that" heavy all the time from start to finish. bruh).
I received my copy one day early and it's on repeat ever since, it's a banger. When Live Outside came out I hated it but damn, i wanna live outsiiideeee wouldn't leave me alone and I ended up singing all day the song. Now I love it xD Rou's been through hell and you can hear that.
On serious thought, why is everyong hating on Revolt of The Atoms? Damn, am I the only one to love this song? Just, the lyrics, at first listen I thought he said "my long cock" (for the record, it's alarm clock), and I was like, why is he talking about his long cock wtf bro xDDD
No need to talk about Rabble Rouser music video, it's shit and they should be ashamed to have released it to the public in the first place.

 

It is most definitely a banger! I've been listening to it everyday and hot damn, what an album. It is one of those who are made for a full listening everytime. The pace is amazing, makes 40 and some minutes pass by like 5. I'm even more impressed with some lyrics, Airfield, Shinrin-Yoku, AOTLJP, Undercover Agents. And both The Sights and S-Y grew on me, are now on par with the others. Overall, I'm really impressed.

 

This heaviness thing, people are too much in love with TTTS (which is their worse, IMHO) and Common Dreads. As you said, both AFFOC and The Mindsweep had their fair share of soft/pop infusion, and are real killers.

 

Revolt of the Atoms is the only track I skip. As much as I try to like it (the end section is kinda nice, to be fair), it simply doesn't click, just like Supercharge or Ghandi Mate, Ghandi... I find it kinda out of place, between UA and AOTLJP

[Kaleidoscope 195]

I missed out on Mindsweep but checked them out again with this album. Pretty good stuff, I absolutely loved the more emotional tracks, Rou really pulls them off well, Airfield and An Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces are beautiful.  Some of the tracks have also grown a lot on me, for example The Sights, which is one of my favourites now.

 

Lyrics are also fantastic, the "prosecco-glazed lips" line is brilliant.

 

The whole album still absolutely sounds like Enter Shikari, so I honestly don't mind them trying out some new stuff, even though I'd prefer some more of that good old craziness on the next album.

[chemicalpictures 1888]

8 hours ago, Kaleidoscope said:

I missed out on Mindsweep but checked them out again with this album. Pretty good stuff, I absolutely loved the more emotional tracks, Rou really pulls them off well, Airfield and An Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces are beautiful.  Some of the tracks have also grown a lot on me, for example The Sights, which is one of my favourites now.

 

Lyrics are also fantastic, the "prosecco-glazed lips" line is brilliant.

 

The whole album still absolutely sounds like Enter Shikari, so I honestly don't mind them trying out some new stuff, even though I'd prefer some more of that good old craziness on the next album.

 

Please DO check The Mindsweep when you have time! It's my favorite album of theirs, "The Appeal & the Mindsweep I" into "The One True Colour" is the best couple of intro+opener they ever done, by far! Hard as fuck, with really meaningful lyrics, just brilliant! There's also several highlights on that album, "The Last Garrison", "Anasthaetist", "Torn Apart", "Dear Future Historians...", what an album!

 

Yeah, Rou evolved so much for this album. Playing with falsettos here and there, a wider vocal range, real nice!

 

"We are the dust on the stained glass windows
Trying to comprehend the cathedral"

 

Gotta love his metaphors, lol

Edited October 2, 2017 by chemicalpictures

[Kaleidoscope 195]

Yeah I guess I should, really enjoyed Anaesthetist back then but never really got around to listen to the whole thing!

 

Definitely, he always had his own thing going on, but he sounds better than ever now.

And yeah, he has some really clever things in his lyrics! I really like his approach to social and political topics, seems so down to earth and still conveys a good message (I mean basically it's just "have some empathy"), stuff like "I don't wanna take my country back, I wanna take my country forward" is great in its simplicity. 

 

Overall, I'm glad to see they are aging well! It's kind of a funny story how I got into them haha. My brother was super into Take To The Skies back then and I thought it was rather ridiculous, I had my "huh it's not metul" phase back then. Since I was working for a metal webzine back then, I got the promo CD for Common Dreads and decided to pick it up so my brother could take a listen, too. Somehow, I ended up loving the album and have been enjoying them ever since!