Vanlustbader - ‘The People Vs Vanlustbader’ (Nomadic) Released 03/04/06

This is Aussies Vanlustbader’s debut album and they arrive with a signature sound. The recipe is a mixture of Oasis’ rock bluster and 80s style electro keyboards and bass. Such things we already know through The Killers. However to be fair to Vanlustabder their sound is no rip off Mr Flower’s and co. Rather a tremendous production job has created a shiny futuristic kind of sound all of their own. Albeit the future as imagined by an indie band in about 1996. It’s a shame though that Vanlustbader don’t have the tunes to make good on the fine production.

The template for almost everything here is ‘Definitely Maybe’ and its swaggering panache and chemical high inducing terrace anthems. This is particularly obvious on openers ‘Communiqué’, ‘Here We Go Again’ and ‘Cuba’. ‘Cuba’ we guess being Vanlustbader's ‘Columbia’. Musically these tracks are not terrible, ‘Communique’ being the best but they only sporadically achieve the harmony between sugary electro melody and rock power and certainly not as well as say Kasabian. Ultimately they just don’t grab you by the balls they way such things such should. Unfortunately as well as this lyrically they’re reminiscent of the Noel Gallagher of recent years rather then the vice of a generation young tyke of ‘Definitely Maybe,’ and the album is peppered with meaningless phrases “here we go", “can you feel it coming down again”, “revolutions are ours” etc..

And when your attempt at lyrics include singing ”I love rock and I love roll” as frontman Shane does on ‘Rock N Roll Part III’ it’s not really a great idea to insert the words of someone who regularly gets compared to Shakespeare by literature scholars. Yet Shane for reasons best known to himself begins ‘Lets Roll Em’ singing Bob Dylan’s lines “Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine/I’m on the pavement thinking about the government.” Two songs divert from the formula with very different results. ‘Radio Tokyo’ is a scary Marilyn Manson glam rock number which provides no relief at all. This in fact comes from the unlikely source of ‘When Good Things Go Bad.’ The solitary lighters aloft ballad it’s a mournful hymn to love lost featuring twinkling guitars, and a fine tune. Not rocket science therefore but it’s actually a really good, sweet song and definitely the highlight in this company. So, unlikely as it may seem it might be advisable for Vanlustbader to dust off the copy of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours ‘(surely everyone has one) and come back with some more of this stuff, rather than stick with the indie-rock.