Hadouken! - 'Turn The Lights Out'
Just let me get one thing out of the way first: it might be in keeping with their provocative past, but any band who wishes to call an album 'For The Masses' is just asking for trouble.
The term "the masses" is a kind of lumping together of people into a group and then looking down on it from above. The person throwing the term around may stand on a lofty height made of money, or education, or just plan snootiness based on personal cool or attitude, but it doesn't change the fact that they're looking down.
Even Karl Marx's doesn't actually use the term. "Des Volkes" means "...of the people", not "...of the common herd".
(. Zombie fans are the best fans. They never die.)
While I'm picking at these nits, it would be a dereliction of my duties not to point out the one single most obvious thing about Hadouken! in general and this song in particular. They are to the Prodigy what S Club Juniors were to S Club 7 only on a less official basis. They've toured with the Prodigy, they perform Prodigy songs on tour, their basic sound could not exist without the pioneering work of Liam Howlett...aka the Prodigy. They are all over the Prodigy sound like chicken pox on a 5-year-old.
This was fine when it looked like the Prodge had gone a bit rubbish and then disappeared. But they're officially back now, doing what they used to do, only louder. And so are Hadouken!, which makes everything a bit strange.
Even more so when you realise that 'Turn The Lights Out' has, to all intents and purposes, the beat and structure of 'Firestarter', and the video from 'Breathe'.
But - and I say this with the full weight and majesty of a stuffy academic, with a flappy, dusty robe, lots of books on his library walls and an encyclopedic knowledge of encyclopedias - so what?
Hadouken! are great. This is great. It's got goosebump magnets running through it like a stick of rock and will make gentle people want to break stuff.
Which, to be fair, S Club Juniors did too, but for different reasons.
Download: Out now
CD Released: January 18th
91Èȱ¬ Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 24th Jan 2010, harrythedog10 wrote:I don't really get Hadouken! they're not melodic enough to make me enjoy the musical craft of their songs and they're not hardcore enough to make me want to throw something out of a window, they just sit in the middle ground.
Also any band who spells their name with an exclamation mark are asking for trouble in my opinion.
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Comment number 2.
At 24th Jan 2010, spirit wrote:Hadouken!... The Westward Ho! of pop music .
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Comment number 3.
At 24th Jan 2010, spirit wrote:I take it you don't like P!NK then Harry ?
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Comment number 4.
At 24th Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:Hmmmmmm Hadouken!
I do love them, first off. Great, raw sounding first album. Catchy tunes and real energy that comes across (great live too). You are correct in saying they are very Prodigy influenced and based.
But I question how any act in this rough genre of music cannot be. Prodigy are basically this music, anybody else has to have a massive draw on them. Its a good thing. Them embracing this is also a good thing.
However I believe they are quite different. Lyrically mainly. The music does sound similar, but they are writing about different stuff. Hadouken! are singing a lot more about culture etc than The Prodge I'd say. It's actually the main negative point of the previous album. They focus a lot on indie kid bashing (where I'm sure a good % of their fan base actually lies) and it gets dull after a fe album listens.
I'm hoping this album moves away from that .. though with the title I suspect not.
Good little opening number though. Im hoping for big things from them this year. Want to get to see them again live ideally too.
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Comment number 5.
At 2nd Feb 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)