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Eighteen months touring and producing themselves at home have toughened the bands sound. And broadened it.
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The Frat pack are back with the impressive, Here We Stand, a confident, storming, guitar-driven rollercoaster of an album with more hooks than the North Sea fishing fleet, all bobbing along on a blitzkreig of overdriven, pop guitars.
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Q MagazineRather than sounding like musical magpies, The Fratellis are always their own men. [July 2008, p.100]
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Throughout, the joyfulness and invention, a marvel of pop craft, make Here We Stand hit the spot.
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They've produced a solid second album that is sure to succeed for them as long as they can maintain a good level of exposure.
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Like a lot of second albums that aren't exactly a slump, Here We Stand is more accomplished than dynamic, but there are still quite a few enjoyable moments here.
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Back for round two, sophomore album Here We Stand doesn't quite bring anything new to the table, but does carry on in the same fun, brash rock tradition of the debut.
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If you look at it as a Grand Guignol of rock cheese, this album is huge fun.
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Entertainment WeeklyThis stuff certainly satisfies. What it doesn't do is thrill. [13 June 2008, p.70]
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If the band's found inventive ways to stretch out its melodies, lad-in-chief Jon Fratelli delivers best on soused songs illuminating how love has gone wrong. Party on.
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UncutNot for everyone, but quite a party. [July 2008, p.94]
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Here We Stand keeps up its predecessor's swagger, but the album's debts to glam and Brit-rock forbears (there's some Bowie and Clash here, too) give you a vague sense you've heard these songs before.
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Here We Stand is tantalizing, but that's all. [July 2008, p.102]
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Alternative PressThe Fratellis may have simply have heightened our expectations by sounding too good too soon. [Aug 2008, p.170]
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Unlikely to win over any feminists, or win any literary prizes, Here We Stand’s main problem is being overlong and under-chorused.
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Simply put, their attempts at a new, more mature direction have found them lacking in all departments: lyrical, compositional, and creative.
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They’ve buried those strengths deep to make way for a humorless new approach that borrows the turgid bleariness of Oasis (“Living’s much too easy and dying will be some kind of bore”) but misses the Gallaghers’ pomp and glory.
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Like Alex Turner with a head injury, Jon Fratelli writes observational lyrics that observe nothing, and character songs with no character.
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The Fratellis have comfortably nestled themselves among the ranks of British rock's most besotted, but even relative to their contemporaries they still manage to come off sounding bored, tired, and downright silly.
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Formula is strictly adhered to, and while pace may differ from one jolly strum-about to the next, the void where there should be a worthwhile tune remains.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 23 out of 35
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Mixed: 4 out of 35
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Negative: 8 out of 35
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Aug 13, 2021
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Sep 1, 2010
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StewAug 20, 2008Costello Music was a great album, this one severely disappoints.