First listen: Athlete's Black Swan

When Athlete first popped onto the scene in 2003 with the Mercury nominated Vehicles & Animals, things looked rosy for the Deptford foursome. Their up-tempo brand of pop music was a perfect accompaniment to lazy summer days, full of optimism and catchy tunes. The follow-up,2005′s chart topping Tourist, spawned the massive single Wires – winner of the 2006 Ivor Novello award for ‘Best Contemporary Song’. 2007′s Beyond The Neighbourhood was disappointing at best, managing a very good #5 position in the charts but quickly falling off the radar. The band soon followed, and were subsequently dropped by their label Parlophone.

2009 has brought a renewed optimism to the Athlete camp. Signed to Fiction – home of Snow Patrol, White Lies and the Maccabees, among others – they recently announced the release of their fourth studio album. Black Swan is set to hit shops on 24 August, and this is our reaction on our very first listen…

Superhuman Touch

If you’ve seen the video for this fantastic new single, then there’s no surprises here. Harking back to the Athlete of old (i.e. when they were brilliant), Superhuman Touch features rising synths punctuated with staccato guitars. Like a superhero, this literally soars above most of their output for the past few years.

The Getaway

After the early optimism instilled through Superhuman Touch, there’s a visible sagging of the shoulders when this one kicks off slower. There’s some lines about leaves and garden paths, before Joel belts out “who’s gonna fly your plane?” over some acoustic guitar. It picks up after the first chorus and the drums come straight to the fore to make the following 20 seconds bearable, before normal service is resumed. This one plods rather than stomps, despite a late rally.

Black Swan Song

If Superhuman Touch was running at full pace, The Getaway was half pace, and Black Swan Song sees the early momentum almost drag the band to a laboured halt. Tourist-era choruses ring out but, despite strings which vary on the inspirational, Joel spends the entire song having a bit of a Gary Barlow moment.

Don’t Hold Your Breath

…trust us, we’re not. The opening line “don’t hold your breath, ‘cos we’re running in circles” more or less sums up the album so far. And we’re only four songs in. It’s Tourist all over again. Slow start. Big chorus. Middle-lull. Massive finish. Repeat.

Love Come Rescue

The shortest song on record by a good minute, Love Come Rescue features just Joel and an acoustic guitar, plucking listfully in that age old Athlete way. It sounds more heartfelt than their usual big songs, and the stripped back sound seems to suit the band – lending this a sincerity which has been missing thus far.

Light The Way

After spending the album’s halfway point relaxing and reflecting on the tracks so far, Light The Way starts off by slowly introducing the instruments we missed out on in the last song – electric guitar, drum, then bass. We’re just about halfway through when the vocals are re-introduced, in a typical slow-build-up style more fitting for an introduction than a just-after-midway point. It’s more of a re-introduction just after the slow-burning previous track, but works well. After the slow build up we do actually get a more upbeat track that doesn’t sound like it’s wallowing in self-pity. It also sustains this until the end, which is impressive.

The Unknown

Immediately this sounds more like it. In the same vein as Superhuman Touch, The Unknown wastes no time in getting to know the listener – bringing a ukulele in for background and then cutting and pasting some more soaring synths and guitars over the top. Strangely, at about the seventh time of asking, the formula actually works. Closer to Vehicles & Animals than anything else here, it curiously sounds like the album may finally be getting started.

Awkward Goodbyes

Forget that. This is definitely end-of-the-album time. Acoustic guitar + Joel = ballad. A brief pause… and normal service is resumed. It’s a similar formula to Love Come Rescue, but lacking the sincerity that made it so endearing. Plus the rest of the band have decided they want to join in which, bizarrely, ruins things somewhat. Every instrument seems to be permanently stuck on “huge”. Customary quiet chorus, slow build up, big finale.

Magical Mistakes

Some Song 2-style drums threaten to destroy the equilibrium here, coupled with a much more sinister-sounding Athlete. The initial effect is good, but after barely a minute they can’t keep it up any more and lapse into their more usual sound. After a brief lull it picks up again for the second verse, but again it’s far too brief to provide anything more than a slight distraction from the tedium. It then fades out over 40 seconds into the last song…

Rubik’s Cube

Piano. Acoustic guitar. Could this be an enhanced Vehicles & Animals (the song)? It initially sounds promising, especially when the strings join in for a bit. They then go and ruin things by kicking things up a notch and making it sound like every other song from their last three albums before stopping for a brief slow chorus then exploding again. Sound familiar?