Saturday 6 November 2010

Boy Kill Boy - Civilian (2006)

Tracklist:
1. Back Again
2. On And On
3. Suzie
4. Six Minutes
5. On My Own
6. Ivy Parker
7. Civil Sin
8. Killer
9. Friday - Friday
10. Showdown
11. Shoot Me Down

The Typical One-Off Artist – 5/10

Ever heard of Boy Kill Boy? No? Not very surprising. I guess they had a small hit in the United Kingdom called “Suzie” and a song added to the popular game FIFA07, entitled “Civil Sin”. Actually, it was the latter that made me hear the entire album. And, frankly, this is one of the best examples of a one-off artist. They recorded only one album after Civilian, but it completely failed to impress so the band called it quits. That doesn’t take away that their debut album is good listening material and to a certain extent is quite impressive.

That certain extent is the fact that one of their songs at the time, any song, is perfectly okay. A track like “Civil Sin” is one of the finest tracks from the game I heard it in, but would you like an album by an artist recording eleven exact same songs? There we go. Technically, this band is top-notch. Every musician knows what he does; it all sounds very tight and difficult to play as a band. The production is very slick, but at the same time very clear. Every instrument is heard the way it’s supposed to be heard. So that’s not the issue. Every song sounds the same; and if all of these songs were “Bohemian Rhapsodies” you would not have me complaining about that. Every track is upbeat, uplifting, cheery, slightly epic, catchy, compact and unbelievably crowded. You hardly get the chance to breath between the tracks. Oh, and did I mention a few clichés? The chorus melody of “Six Minutes” or the keyboard theme on “Friday – Friday”, for example, is just made before. Perhaps not released before, but that’s quite understandable. Add to that the length of every track; they’re all over before you know it. Now I don’t deny that I slightly enjoy hearing this record once in a while, with the consequence of fatigue afterwards. But with every song being the same, you can’t expect this band to grow and live up to the current pop legends like Coldplay, Keane and U2.

That being said, this record will not be of great interest to anyone. I can’t believe these guys would’ve had die-hard fans crying when they decided to invest their efforts in other projects. If you fell for the minor hit “Suzie” or for the song from FIFA07, the best you should do is stick to that single song. Play it eleven times if you really want to have a clue about how the album sounds.

Strongest tracks: All of them.
Weakest tracks: All of them.

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