The Futureheads’ 2004 debut was packed with pop gems. Racked to the rafters with the bloody things which shot by at thundering pace, in formation, like zippy chimney-chipping low level flypasts by the Red Arrows. Four rough-round-the-edges lads from the North East brandishing guitars and corrugated iron voice-boxes, made glorious noise, left vapour trails. Yet it took a novelty cover to get anyone to pay them any serious notice. Still, it was one of the great modern pop re-interpretations, and notice was duly paid. Now that people are watching though, expectant and geared up for more hi-NRG jetting, they choose to be commercially contrary, stop chasing the post-punk racetrack rabbit and slow the fuck down. We’re not talking balladry here, not at all, not even when they simmer it to a crawl – they’re built of much sturdier stuff, be sure of that – but with a new found control they’ve sacrificed some of the more immediate thrills that their eponymous debut was jammed with.
But that doesn’t make ‘News & Tributes’ lacking, not at all. It’s tribute in fact to the band’s creative density that when stripped of their more obvious characteristics they still remain surging, raw and creatively essential. This album doesn’t just prove to be a work of fine craftsmanship and vision, but possibly also the work of the greatest British vocal group since The Housemartins. We kid ye not (and don’t scoff until you’ve gone back and listened to ‘Happy Hour’ or ‘Caravan Of Love’ – untouchable pop music). We don’t necessarily mean that to be a direct comparison, more a reflection of the focus that the vocals receive this time around, built on simplistic, well chosen, but never clichéd lyrical blocks. But it’s certainly there for all to see on the stripped back, reverb heavy, 60’s barbershop lament ‘Thursday’, with its warm multi-part harmonies and very English sense of defeat.
If last time they were like The Jam sending a morse code distress signals to Gang Of Four over barbershop bay, all harsh punctuation – full stops, hypens, slashes, exclamations, bolded up – then they’ve introduced some commas, brackets, some of those squiggly lines (y’know, ~) and done it all in italics. In spite of this new found control, every guitar strike feels spontaneous, like an immediate reaction to or against something. See how it sashays through ‘Skip To The End’, ‘Back To The Sea’ and the title track, propelled by unseen instinctive gusts at a speed that lets you enjoy the scenery. ‘Burnt’, ‘Favours For Favours’ and the brilliantly moreish ‘Worry About It Later’ seems to absorb some of the swelling awe of British Sea Power with the loose ends cut free and tied tight. For old time’s sake though they bundle through a rampant approximation of everything they’ve recorded thus far in the thrillingly breakneck two and half minute ‘Return Of The Berserker’. With the release of their debut we mused that their name was a bit of a misnomer. On this evidence though they do indeed have a prosperous future of using their wonky buzzing noggins ahead of them.