Furthermore, the group doesn’t utilize its wares in the best manner, as efforts to add variety to its arrangements end up being overly fussy and cluttered.ĭivorced from the polished production and jacked-up volume, the songs themselves are slight and unremarkable, with melodies that are too often wiped from the memory once the next track starts.
What the Wombats have engaged in is an academic attempt to craft dance-informed rock music, one that ticks the proper boxes on a conceptual level without actually being practical. The only dancing suited to accompany this record is self-conscious indie-kid robotic jerks and bouncing. Instead of being a magical combination of the best of both worlds as the band intends (the sort mastered by alternative dance predecessors Primal Scream and its ilk), the music’s rigid angularity as typified by opening salvo “Our Perfect Disease” is more comparable to bad Bloc Party, except with more shouting. Whatever you think of contemporary commercial dance music, it’s clear regardless that the production techniques utilized on This Modern Glitch are ill-suited to the Liverpool-based indie rockers. As the album instantly hits you with an overcompressed diamond-hard wall of sound buttressed by body-shaking, blown-out bass and piercing treble, you can practically hear the recording costs being punched into a calculator. This Modern Glitch exudes an oppressively artificial air all over due to its overglossed production, the sort generally reserved for today’s mainstream dance-pop. Trouble is, this vibe comes off as rather forced. Transparently crafted as the soundtrack to some endless indie disco night, This Modern Glitch is undoubtedly a good time record. Despite its frequently-mopey lyrics, the trio’s second album This Modern Glitch is a bright, shiny thing, a reflection of the group’s newfound fascination with synths as well as the sonic manifestation of the sheer existential joy of being in an upwardly-mobile rock ensemble. Britain’s Wombats are throwing a dance party, and desperately want you to join in the festivities.
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