Southend art-rockers Asylums might have thought it was just them feeling the confusion as they built up a head of steam for their third album with producer Steve Albini late last year.
Now it transpires that their sense of dislocation was ahead of the game – and the game was about to be transformed. The ‘There’s a sun that never comes out’ strap line comes from A Perfect Life In A Perfect World and could almost be a repost to The Smiths.
Most of the song titles are self-explanatory – Catalogue Kids, A Town Full Of Boarded Up Windows, Who Writes Tomorrows Headlines, Yuppie Germs, Adrenaline Culture – and the pace is forceful without getting furious as Albini keeps the multiple sound layers distinct to let the vocals through.
He allows one uncontrolled howl of anguish, on The Difference Between Right & Left, which makes the following, gentler The Miracle Age even more effective.
