Famous First Words
- Viva Brother
- Band Name: Viva Brother
- Record Label: A&M
- Release Date: Aug 1, 2011
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Jan 18, 201240Famous First Words was always going to struggle to live up to the band's bold promises, but it's still a shock at how a Brit-pop scene renowned for its color can be responsible for something so utterly drab.
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Aug 12, 201120As a record that Geffen plus Newell and co expect anyone to pay for, this album is a distillation of all that is wrong with British guitar music, peddled by a band so consumed by their own deluded egotism that they think of themselves as its saviours.
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Aug 2, 201129In execution the whole thing comes off as nothing more than a thinly disguised, crass attempt to smoke latent Oasis fans out of hiding. Unfortunately for them, Beady Eye already beat them to the punch.
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Aug 16, 201140Recent name change can't save disappointing debut. [Sept. 2011, p.105]
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Aug 18, 201140Famous First Words passes by amiably enough, like a TV clip-show but is eerily without a sense of place, time or even quirk to make you believe in it. [Sep 2011, p.98]
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Aug 26, 201140Viva Brother lack much of Blur's charming artyness and all of the Gallaghers' battering rock immensity and football terrace touch. [Sept. 2011, p. 96]
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Aug 2, 201150Famous First Words sounds less like a manifesto, more like a misguided step-by-step guide.
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Aug 2, 201130There isn't really an awful lot else to say. Famous First Words might not be the worst record you'll hear this year, but it's certainly one of the most pointless.
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Aug 2, 201140If you want to stretch your wings further, you need originality and you need not just bravado but actual courage--and Viva Brother's world is neither brave nor new.
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Aug 2, 201140As Famous First Words plays, it's impossible to stop craving something, anything, a bit more original, up to and including a fusion of the deep pulse of the digeridoo with the soaring heights of the bagpipes. That's certainly an achievement, but not, you suspect, the one Viva Brother were aiming for.
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Aug 8, 201150Disappointing fare from Britpop revivalists on the receiving end of critical vitriol.
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Aug 9, 20110This album is an abomination. It's a rancid pile of regurgitated tripe.
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Aug 2, 201150What's frustrating is that it's too damn enjoyable and not quite derivative enough to actively hate.
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Aug 2, 201120Strident guitars and harmonies tug one's sleeve, eager for attention they don't merit, while the lyrics seem to be about nothing.
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Aug 2, 201120This debut is so lame, it makes the Beady Eye album sound like Let It Bleed.
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Aug 2, 201130Yet for all their bluster of writing anthems for a new generation and saving guitar music, the reality is little more than a damp squib.
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Aug 2, 201120Ultimately, Famous First Words sets the cause of resurgent guitar rock back… ooh, a good 20 years.