Album Review: The Latest Fashion by Attack! Attack!

They've come on leaps and bounds since emerging in 08 Attack! Attack! have come on leaps and bounds since they emerged in early 08 – something Hassle Records have clearly picked up on as they gear up to release their infinitely superior second full-length. It’s full-speed ahead as ‘Everything Goes’ bursts into action to blow the cobwebs from your speakers and there’s a punchiness in the production of ‘Blood On My Hands’ and ‘Not Afraid’ that puts the band’s own debut to shame. There is a welcome confidence throughout ‘The Latest Fashion’ that Attack! Attack! have not previously shown and it’s likely to propel this lot to great things.

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While it’s easy to confuse Attack! Attack! with Ohio’s Attack Attack! (notice the difference in exclamation points), the U.K. act has very little in common with the heavy screamo act from the States. The specialty of the Cardiff-based band is glossy emo-pop and friendly, grunge-influenced alt-rock. Jimmy Eat World and Foo Fighters are similar buzz bands, and Attack! Attack!’s music is similarly apt for a festival or big arena stage.

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I don’t know what the competition was like for the Best British Newcomer Award at the 2009 Kerrang! Awards, for which Attack! Attack! UK were nominated, but apparently the Kerrang! editorial board favors crisply produced, manifestly competent and totally uninspiring modern rock, constructed in the shadow of the mighty (for these times) Foo Fighters and best consumed soundtracking a beach montage on 90210 or blasting out of a speaker from the third stage of the Dr Pepper Presents The Sound of Tomorrow Today tour (with Mother 13!). Sure, it’s catchy, but it’s also passionless, clichéd and forgotten as soon as it’s heard. Song titles include: “No Excuses”, “Not Afraid” and “No Tomorrow”, while elsewhere the band triumphs over haters (hi, guys!) on “My Shoes” and realize they’re their own worst enemy on “Nemesis”.

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Enough confidence in their delivery to warrant some admirable comparisons. Raziq Rauf 2010 Definitely not to be confused with American Christian metalcore band, Attack Attack! (only one exclamation mark in their name, see), this Welsh quartet are altogether less frantic and stylised, despite what their punctuated name might suggest. Their eponymous debut album of 2008 had enough pop punk quality and gained the band enough fans to get them noticed by Hassle Records, who promptly signed them up.

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