Album Review: The Blackout - Start The Party

The album name says it all. To produce Start The Party, The Blackout shift away from their previous work to create a combination of catchy choruses and cheesy, fairly generic pop-punk sounds.

Each track on this album is upbeat, aiming for the obvious – a party-rock vibe. The more catchy tunes, such as Start the Party and Sleep When You're Dead frame the heavier, more recognisable sounds of The Blackout (such as Take Away The Misery), which lie towards the middle of the album. In the midst of this party-rock flavoured composition, we find a terribly placed, acoustic-driven love song, You, which lacks real emotion and sounds far too insincere in the atmosphere of this album.

The lack of screams in this album removes a vital passionate, fiery element that has been present over The Blackout's previous three albums. But on a more positive note, the clean vocals from Sean Smith and Gavin Butler produce a stronger sound together – contrasting raw and melodic, yet harmonious throughout the album, and it brings some depth back to the catchy tunes.

The vibe of the album certainly suits the upbeat party atmosphere of The Blackout's live shows. Start the Party is certainly nothing original, but it has the ability to produce a happy ambiance, the kind that gets everyone up to mindlessly sing along, dance around and P.A.R.T.Y. So with The Blackout on the approach to our shores for Soundwave in the upcoming months, fans will get a taste of some cheesy party-rock anthems  among the heavier set they might be used to.