Album Review: X Marks Destination by The Whip

Whenever a musical subgenre becomes commercially successful, there are opportunistic musicians who say, “Hey, I can do that, too.” Likewise, Manchester’s the Whip take the Editors’ approach to the indie electro aesthetic: slick production, some bona fide hooks, embarrassing lyrics and an overarching authenticity problem. While opener Trash sounds like the sort of thing Bloc Party should have done after Silent Alarm, most tracks are hurt by a real lack of lyrical depth. Case in point, on Throw It In The Fire singer Danny Saville laments, “I can’t go home, and I can’t stay here” – basically the same philosophical problem Semisonic grappled with back in 1998.

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Gorgeously minimal electro of the early 1980s persuasion continues to bounce around every other new band. But while blurps and beeps usually add a sheen of innocent charm to proceedings, they don't in the case of Manchester four-piece the Whip. Prolonged plays of their debut album suggests they're more like a cut-price Reverend and the Makers. We begin with frontman Bruce Carter singing "I wanna be trash", on opening track, Trash, with a voice full of charmless grit and holler.

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