Album Review: British India - Controller

British India occupy an interesting position in Australian music. First critics loved them, then there was the inevitable backlash (fuelled perhaps by frontman Declan Melia's cranky media persona), but they remained extremely popular and were (still are) one of the country's strongest live bands, so the press stopped bagging them… mostly.

Almost three years separates Controller and their third album, Avalanche, and this long a gap tends to be a sure sign that a big change in sound is coming. That's not true here; like previous albums, Controller is music for screaming in concerts and turning up to full in headphones. They build towards the chorus, explode in angst, and then end. And mostly, it's good. Immature and unsophisticated? Sure man, but who cares when you're getting this much loud, heartfelt catharsis? The only two songs that really suck are those where they try and do something different – Swimming In Winter and Crystal are soft love songs, with Melia inexplicably doing straight singing, even though that's not where his strengths as a vocalist are. The latter especially is just odd and pointless. Singles Summer Forgive Me and I Can Make You Love Me, which is almost beautiful in its desperation, are predictably highlights, as well as We Don't Need Anyone, which is a perfect highschooler's anthem.

British India's records deal a lot in the tactile rather than cerebral, in tastes and sounds, bodies, blood and blinding rage, and maybe that's why kids like them so much and critics don't. But all these things exist and they're important, and it's good they're getting sung about. It's almost certain British India will lose this vital angst sooner or later, but for now they're doing fine.