Album review: Billy Talent: 'Billy Talent III'

BILLY TALENT: 'Billy Talent III' (Atlantic)

Popular belief has it that bands need time to mature; that it takes around three or four albums before they truly hit pay dirt. Occasionally, however, a band pops out of the creative womb with a sound so completely polished, and so utterly their own, that the concept of progress is rendered redundant – if the music’s already this good, why change?

Billy Talent are one of these rare commodities. With their stupendous debut album, Canada’s finest stamped their splenetic seal on contemporary punk rock, with Ben Kowalewicz’s agitated vocals and Ian D’Sa’s scattershot riffs providing a match made in auditory heaven. It’s a format that proved massively successful and thankfully, it largely dominates this, their third record in six years. The musical marriage is still going strong, creating a series of fantastically intense tracks that worm their way into your head with the greatest of ease. The highlights are the most venomous moments, such as the ridiculously catchy ‘Sweet Veronica’ and the invective ‘Pocketful of Dreams’, where Ben’s vocals spit aggression, while the whirlwind of calamitous guitars provide the most delectable soundtrack. And then there’s ‘Turn Your Back’, a song in such a rage that it threatens to burst out of your speakers and bash your brains in.

Unusually, however, there are a number of pedestrian moments too. Instead of opening with the energetic sprint of a ‘This Is How It Goes’ or a ‘Devil in a Midnight Mass’, the album crawls out of the gates with the crushingly repetitive ‘Devil on my Shoulder’, and then continues with the disappointing trudge of comeback single ‘Rusted by the Rain’. And when momentum does build, there are several lumbering, proggy numbers waiting in the wings to kill it; ‘White Sparrows’ takes a great big dump all over the fire and fury created by the excellent ‘Tears Into Wine’, while the one chord monotony of ‘Sudden Movements’ is so far removed from the unquestionable genius of ‘Turn Your Back’ that it’s almost painful.

For the most part, ‘Billy Talent III’ sticks to the band’s well-worn formula and this is what proves to be its saving grace. There are just enough powerfully visceral slabs of belligerent punk rock to forgive its occasional flirtations with the monochrome, but sadly, not enough to make this as stunning and thrilling an effort as ‘I’ or ‘II’. Solid by anyone else’s standards, but maybe just a little disappointing by Billy Talent’s. (6/10)

It's #musicmonday! Wah-hey!

Inspired by the 'trending topic' of the same name on Twitter, here's a new feature designed to tickle your earlobes. I post links to ten songs wot I fink r gud. You listen. And probably want to hit me repeatedly over the head with a hammer for exposing you to such garbage. Oh well.

1. ANTI-FLAG: "Sodom, Gomorrah, Washington D.C. (Sheep in Shepherd's Clothing)"



Nice and angry new single from the perpetually politicised ones. This gives me a chance to show off my lovely new blip.fm account too. God, there's just too many websites to give my precious time to these days.

2. CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND: "Nicorette"



A lovely live performance of a lovely song from Oberst's lovely new album 'Outer Sight', released this lovely week. Altogether now, 'I'm just trying to be a human being/Sitting in the sun eating ice cream'.

3. BILLY TALENT: "Devil on My Shoulder"



Bootlegged from a live show in Sydney, a sample of the sort of delights we are in for from Billy Talent III. Not the single, it should be noted, which is called 'Rusted From The Rain' and is out on May 25th.

4. MANIC STREET PREACHERS: "All Is Vanity"



Managed to get my hands on a copy of Journal for Plague Lovers and, pleasingly, it's a bit of a beaut. This is one of my favourites from it, set to an excellent montage of scenes from the movie Equilibrium. I really can't wait for the end of May...

5. THE KING BLUES: "I Got Love"



It's a little cheesy, I'll grant you, and it's far from the best song on recent album Save the World, Get the Girl, but I love it all the same. And it's all over Radio 1, which can only be a good thing.

6. MAXIMO PARK: "The Kids Are Sick Again"



Sounds delightfully sinister this one. Lucas's weird keyboard parts make it for me, and it certainly helps that he's as mad as ever in the video. Not quite as immediate as 'Our Velocity', but it packs a good punch nonethless.

7. FAKE PROBLEMS: "The Dream Team"



From 'It's Great To Be Alive', one of the few albums released this year that I've been struck by, 'The Dream Team' is a top class pop song and a fine, fine representation of the band. Playing the Lock Up stage at Reading and Leeds and supporting Frank Turner on his October tour, these guys are not to be missed.

8. NEW END ORIGINAL: "14-41"



Been listening to the one and only album from Jonah Matranga's best band (controversial that; I know I should be bleating on about how nothing'll ever surpass Far but meh, that's just not me) since his solo show at Trillian's a few weeks back and I can't get enough of this song. The amateur nature of the video footage that this is underscoring quite suits both the feel of the track and Matranga's very inclusivist attitude to his music.

9. EELS: "Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor"



The opening track from one of my favourite albums of all time, 1998's 'Electro-Shock Blues', 'Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor' is probably the most haunting piece of music you will ever hear. The animated video that accompanies it was created by the Youtube user responsible for the upload and it's superb.

10. FRANK TURNER: "Try This At Home"



An excellent live performance of the utterly ace 'Try This At Home' at this year's SXSW. The track will feature on Frank's third album 'Poetry of the Deed', which is out in September. Further proof, as if any were needed, that he can do no wrong.

And that's that. More next Monday!