A few years ago a bunch of fellas from Coventry entered our musical world with a few things to say. They called themselves The Enemy and they sang about dole queues, weekend boozing and every dead end town in the UK – they were a refreshing break from skinny jeans and glow sticks and so we listened. They were the quintessential working class band and we bought their album by the truck load. By building such a following they also began building expectations.
It’s easy to forget that, as they prepare to unleash their second album, this indie rock behemoth is still just three lads from the Midlands with grand ambitions and more than a few catchy tunes. Suffice to say ‘Music for the People’ is a big step for the Enemy because they have it all to lose – let down your fans and you lose your invincibility.
The opening, ‘Elephant Song’ is a giant leap in the right direction – sweeping up the loose ends from Oasis’s ‘Swamp Song’ and turning it into a truly grand opening track. ‘No time for Tears’ follows and it's immediately clear this was the right choice for their lead off single with pounding drums and balls-out vocals. So far, so invincible still. Elsewhere, ‘Be Somebody’ pisses all over Kings of Leon’s track of the same name with its anthemic pianos and walls of guitar – it's three minutes of class and perhaps the band’s poppiest moment yet.
But for some reason this album falls from grace spectacularly when the Enemy forget their roots. ‘51st State’ is a meagre attempt at a rock song, while ‘Don’t break the red tape’ mirrors the Clash’s ‘London Calling’ with radically different results – no song can recover from a serious mention of ‘Supermarket Sweep’ in my opinion – Dale Winton could sue for defamation.
‘Silver Spoon’ is the weakest track The Enemy have ever written and should not even make this record let alone get the honour of closing it. Unfortunately if you listen to their debut album in comparison with this there’s a distinct and unexplainable loss of quality control. ‘Sing When You’re In Love’, for example, just doesn’t compare to ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ unfortunately.
It’s a relief that tracks like ‘Keep Losing’ and ‘Nation of Checkout Girls’ just about manage to balance this album between inspired and awful. The Enemy have clearly set out to make a giant rock record, but unfortunately they’ve only done it 50% of the time and being half way to invincibility leaves you nowhere.
