Year: 2010
Label: Polydor
Producer: Delphic and Ewan Pearson
Running Time: 51.7 mins
Every review of Acolyte, the debut album from the British group Delphic, mentions three phrases: “dance-rock,” “Manchester” and “New Order.” This handful of buzzwords neatly encapsulates the critical party line for this album. You’ve got a genre/sound, a lineage and a big name dropped for comparison. Acolyte has only been released in the UK so far, so we only have the ever-excitable British press as the album’s acid test. However, despite the virtually universal acclaim it’s been getting, I can’t imagine that Acolyte will make much of a splash over here in America when it finally arrives.
That isn’t to say Delphic’s music is bad. After riding the massive wave of UK-music-press hype for the past year and finishing third in the BBC Sound Of 2010 poll, the three-piece band have released a solid, cohesive debut that serves as more than just a vehicle for popular singles. Their influences are fairly obvious (most reviewers pick out New Order, Underworld and Orbital as major touchstones), but, as MusicOMH’s Ben Urdang says, “they recycle well, managing to do it with gravitas.” The New Order comparisons are so obvious they can’t be ignored (“’Submission’ boasts a solo so indebted to Peter Hook's style it all but turns up in a pair of leather trousers and starts complaining about Tony Wilson's mismanagement of the Hacienda,” writes The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis), but the quality and consistency of the songcraft keeps Acolyte from sounding like a tired copy of older bands. I think we can safely put Delphic in the same category as bands like Passion Pit, who are rehashing the sounds of the 1980s but updating them for contemporary listeners.
However, history has proven that dance-rock is a tough genre to work with. NME’s John Doran points out that “the road to hell is lined with the burnt-out husks of groups who tried to fuse rock and dance.” While Delphic probably don’t deserve such a bleak fate, they lack that magical spark that appeals to both rock and dance fans. The band leans heavily towards the dance side of the equation, only veering towards rock-ish territories in their silvery guitar lines and emotionally weighted lyrics. The tracks that do the most work on the album, like “Doubt” and “Halcyon”, work much better as wordy dance jams than “serious” rock songs that just happen to be fun to groove along to.
Those generous English critics have given Acolyte an almost universal 80% approval rate across the board. While I agree with the general assessment of this album as “immediate and assured” (Drowned In Sound’s Aaron Lavery), the substance and truly compelling songs aren’t quite there. With this debut album, Delphic have shown a lot of potential, but they’re best work is probably still ahead of them. When Acolyte finally does make the long journey across the Atlantic, where the music critics are much less forgiving, I doubt it’ll be anything more than a cult hit among the groups of Anglophilic people who watch Skins religiously.
Final Grade:
Label: Polydor
Producer: Delphic and Ewan Pearson
Running Time: 51.7 mins
Every review of Acolyte, the debut album from the British group Delphic, mentions three phrases: “dance-rock,” “Manchester” and “New Order.” This handful of buzzwords neatly encapsulates the critical party line for this album. You’ve got a genre/sound, a lineage and a big name dropped for comparison. Acolyte has only been released in the UK so far, so we only have the ever-excitable British press as the album’s acid test. However, despite the virtually universal acclaim it’s been getting, I can’t imagine that Acolyte will make much of a splash over here in America when it finally arrives.
That isn’t to say Delphic’s music is bad. After riding the massive wave of UK-music-press hype for the past year and finishing third in the BBC Sound Of 2010 poll, the three-piece band have released a solid, cohesive debut that serves as more than just a vehicle for popular singles. Their influences are fairly obvious (most reviewers pick out New Order, Underworld and Orbital as major touchstones), but, as MusicOMH’s Ben Urdang says, “they recycle well, managing to do it with gravitas.” The New Order comparisons are so obvious they can’t be ignored (“’Submission’ boasts a solo so indebted to Peter Hook's style it all but turns up in a pair of leather trousers and starts complaining about Tony Wilson's mismanagement of the Hacienda,” writes The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis), but the quality and consistency of the songcraft keeps Acolyte from sounding like a tired copy of older bands. I think we can safely put Delphic in the same category as bands like Passion Pit, who are rehashing the sounds of the 1980s but updating them for contemporary listeners.
However, history has proven that dance-rock is a tough genre to work with. NME’s John Doran points out that “the road to hell is lined with the burnt-out husks of groups who tried to fuse rock and dance.” While Delphic probably don’t deserve such a bleak fate, they lack that magical spark that appeals to both rock and dance fans. The band leans heavily towards the dance side of the equation, only veering towards rock-ish territories in their silvery guitar lines and emotionally weighted lyrics. The tracks that do the most work on the album, like “Doubt” and “Halcyon”, work much better as wordy dance jams than “serious” rock songs that just happen to be fun to groove along to.
Those generous English critics have given Acolyte an almost universal 80% approval rate across the board. While I agree with the general assessment of this album as “immediate and assured” (Drowned In Sound’s Aaron Lavery), the substance and truly compelling songs aren’t quite there. With this debut album, Delphic have shown a lot of potential, but they’re best work is probably still ahead of them. When Acolyte finally does make the long journey across the Atlantic, where the music critics are much less forgiving, I doubt it’ll be anything more than a cult hit among the groups of Anglophilic people who watch Skins religiously.
Final Grade:
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