The Automatic
This Is A Fix
Release Date: Aug 25, 2008
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
Record label: B-Unique
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Album Review: This Is A Fix by The Automatic
Not recommended, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 3/10
The Automatic are an interesting case. Not musically, of course – the music on this album, for the most part, is about as interesting as a flapjack in a bin – but in terms of where they are as a band right now. The famous “sophomore slump” is now so ingrained in music culture that there is, weirdly, very little pressure on these Welsh chaps to produce anything sensational.
Based on rating 1/5
Having spent the past two years touring their first album, the Automatic have delivered a second record that is full of the sort of insights that only occur to songwriters when they realise they're wasting their lives shuttling between promo junkets. So, the insight on Magazines is that magazines lie; on Bad Guy, it's that Hollywood lies; on Accessories, it's that the record industry lies. Just when you're feeling grateful that they haven't written a song about how the government lies, Responsible Citizen arrives to tackle the binge-drinking argument, only to capitulate with the gruesomely clumsy: "Some people should not partake/ Sometimes it's a big mistake." Elsewhere, the Welsh four-piece are merely witless.