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Black Lungs - Send Flowers
2/5
Words: Mark Kelly
Ah side projects. Whenever will we learn? Some, you'd have to concede work better than others. The Raconteurs for example seem to work rather nicely as a credible and somewhat pleasing outlet for that talented milky bar kid Jack White. Audioslave on the other hand are a torrid RATM hangover with a cheesy singer.
It's a delicate pastime then and one that yields very inconsistent results. Alexisonfire guitarist Wade McNeil's first step into the melodious minefield of side projects is described on their MySpace page as a "tragic mix of liquor, late nights and fast women". Nice.
The bad news however comes in waves. Firstly, Mr McNeil has decided to go back to his "punk roots" for most of the album. This sounds fine at first but when you couple punk guitar lines with lyrics like "slowly the cancer wins" and multiple references to hell throughout…you get the idea. Most of the songs appear to be about the pain of cancer, the perils of smoking and the possibility of death by dangerous driving. Not one to wake up to then. Then there's the name. Black Lungs. Prozac anyone?
There are some flashes of genius though. The classical pianos that flow through tracks like So It Goes and Fire And Brimstone save the album from sounding like a dull unoriginal punk record and make it playful and fun. McNeil's voice too is rasping, unpolished and emotive throughout and hangs onto the sweeter melodies especially well.
But not well enough unfortunately. If happen to be an utterly depressed, mascara wearing, poetry writing 15 year old then this maybe your cup of tea. If not then steer well clear.
Released: 25.08.08
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