mostly time is an inconsequential thing. it has no beginning or end, is measured in an entirely created rather than scientific way, and in all senses is not actually "real", look you see. yet i feel compelled to write of how "time has flown", for i was not at all expecting to be writing about the second album off of the band Inhaler quite so soon as i am.
yes, i did have to go and check. it was so that their debut, It Won't Always Be Like This, came into my collection during the business end of the third quarter of 2021. kind of 18 months, then. no, i had no idea who the parent was of one of them, i bought it purely after hearing them on a facebook advert, liking it and figuring the £5 they wanted for the record was a decent gamble.
as i recall it, their debut album, was pretty good. if not one i had played much since the time. well, i pick up a great many tapes on my travels, and one can only listen to so much music when one seems busy more than they are not busy. enough of it was recalled, however, in a good way to go right ahead and purchase, from HMV provenance fans, their second one, Cuts & Bruises.
for those of you in a rush, or simply impatient, this record, Cuts & Bruises, is a really f*****g good album, resplendent with a very Nigel Tufnel 11 songs of consistently high quality. it is quite likely going to be played for longer, or have "better legs" (industry term i think) than the debut, which was not at all bad. the frustration, if any, is that the songs are all ace but (on the basis of a couple of plays so far, i confess) there's no "wow" mega sounding hit single on it; no anthem to take them to the level they wish to be at. yet then again "singles" as they were known, understood and loved no longer exist.
that which counts as singles these days, as in the ones which are "dropped" on streaming prior to the album proper coming out, or handed over to radio stations to play, do feature here. both of them, These Are The Days and a particular highlight of the album Love Will Get You There, are very good as being ambassadors for the sound entire of the record. if you check out them two and dig them this is an album you will quite like, if not fall in love with. hang on, listening to it again right now and These Are The Days may well be that one "hook" signature single from which their ambitions shall emerge.
what i know now, and how it relates to all of this, then. that's the "nepotism" thing. it's not something i have ever had much of an issue with. for me it's not how you get the job, or gig, or place in the world, it's what you do with it. being "son of Bono" in the present day is (if we're honest) likely to hold you back more than it would get you forward (sadly, and i don't understand the hate), but at best shall only get you into so many record label offices, will only get you so many suspiciously high profile support slots (the boring Gallagher, no less). you have to do something with the opportunity, and that's exactly what this band sounds like they are doing.
oh. this is a good one on the stereo now, and i am surprised. when i looked at the track list, this one, which is number seven (7) on the tape (disc), sounded like it was going to be a right load of w@nk, being called Dublin In Ecstasy. no, that's actually a really decent tune despite the misleading title, and certainly a highlight.
in passing i saw some snippet from a headline or interview (or similar) with the band, with the tagline or catch being the statement "we are not here just to play afternoon slots at festivals". clearly the ambition is to be as big as possible, like, to avoid a certain reference, REM or Oasis or Stones big. well, why not? hard to see a point in being a rock band if you are not going to try and be massive. just so very few bands come out and say it as a statement of intent.
certainly they have embraced aggressive pricing as part of the strategy to be headliners. if HMV are selling this for £5.99 then i dare say i could have got it direct off the band for a fiver, again. but i do like visiting HMV, thanks. for a comparison, Depeche Mode have proposed an eye watering price of £17.99 for the standard tape (disc) of their imminent new album. as in, you could get three (3) copies of this new one from Inhaler for the same money. considering how forgettable their previous album, Spirit, has proven to be, i think i shall just wait on a sale price, Dave and Marty.
should the charts still actually matter, and the albums chart appears to be going the way of the singles one, this album went in at number two. pipped to the post, as it were, by the heavily promoted, in particular by Radio 2, new one off of P!nk. which, to be fair, does sound rather good, at least on the basis of the bits frequently played by Radio 2 in the week leading up to release.
any third or further albums off of Inhaler shall be bought as i watch (with interest) their quest to be massive. i hope they make it. much of Cuts & Bruises certainly sounds like it should be heard in as large a venue as possible. and that's from the quality of it, not via the soulless, bland, deliberately created for stadium sound of, say, The Killers. good luck, Inhaler, keep it going.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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