Album review: Enter Shikari – Common Dreads

Bugger me, Enter Shikari are a confusing band, aren’t they?

After their amusing, yet terrifyingly huge, debut had come and gone I’d completely forgotten they existed, yet here they are with Common Dreads, bold as brass and, if anything, even more dedicated to fusing metal and trance – a marriage as clamoured for as a bull elephant and Little Jimmy Krankie – and no less baffling, exciting and, frankly, not something you’d admit to supporting.

So, let’s gaily skip over the stats. Yup – they went to no 4 in the album charts and headlined The Astoria all while being actually self-managed, labelled, and so on (no vanity label for these chaps) so, DIY as fuck and 100% kudos to the boys for that. And, yep, you’re right, the whole St Albans, writing in a “shed” in the garden and all that bobbins has more than a vague whiff of Trustafarianism about it, but, shit, we’re done with ascribing class to music and demanding “street credibility” surely? How does the bastard sound, right?

It’s a fucking mess is how it sounds, and, yeah, as regular readers and haterz (i.e. all of you) of my work know, that means Common Dreads falls just on the side of the angels to my ears. I’d rather an over-reaching bunch of nonsense than a cosy coterie of session musos 101 times out of 100.

It’s bombastic, ill-informed, hilariously earnest and there are too many tracks, but I can’t find it in my heart to hate it.

The singles are great fun. “Juggernauts” is a great snapshot of the album as a whole: Arpeggios, drum rolls, bit of Mike Skinner-impersonation, little bit of politics (TM Ben Fucking Elton) all wrapped up in hyperactive punching the sky naivety. “Zzzonked” is well rave for white kids with no bloody rhythm and should be enormous in America (why are white American 20 year olds so cursed with a lack of syncopation? Discuss in 500 words or less) and “No Sleep Tonight” is just a proper pop song.

The rest is the very definition of a mish-mash, although nearly all mash with barely a soupcon of mish. Half-baked but well-meaning politics all welded to some fucking impressive drum and bass (not drum’n’bass) programming, some shouting, some anthemic chordal shredding and a whole ton of synth action; I’m not proud to admit it, but I think it’s all rather sweet.

In a way I’m the worst person in the world to review Enter Shikari as I’m fundamentally opposed to fusion in pretty much all forms, but I’m totally on their side here. Common Dreads shouldn’t work (and for 50% of the time it doesn’t) but either they don’t care or they don’t know and have ploughed on regardless, and, well, it’s youthful, wide-eyed pop almost scientifically designed to annoy arseholes like me.

More power to their elbows – go buy the album. There will be something you find to enjoy, should you be a fan of rubbish trance, excellent pop music, PWEI, Carter USM or sixth form politics. Honest guv, try it.

Perhaps I’m just lured by the smell of youth; I ought to go take a shower – I feel hmm, nasty…