Following the dance-rock groove etched by the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Simian Mobile Disco, You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into, the debut album from Reading’s Does It Offend You, Yeah?, is a collection of dayglo splattered sounds, all hyperactive beats and convulsing guitars, a record that, at its best, delivers electro eel shocks of the most thrilling kind. Often, however, the four-piece’s stylistic flourishes cannot compensate for a lack of creative substance.
The early tracks lay down an ear-decimating salvo of banshee scream synth, treated vocals and punishing rhythms, ‘With A Heavy Heart (I Regret To Inform You)’ and ‘We Are Rockstars’ pushing forward like an all-devouring army of robotic termites. They apply the brakes on ‘Dawn Of The Dead’, a pop sensibility coming to the fore here. It is a temporary lapse and ‘Doomed Now’ and the outrageously titled ‘Attack Of The 60ft Lesbian Octopus’ have us back in the land of screeching electronics and thudding percussion. By ‘Let’s Make Out’ the constant raucousness is beginning to grate. Straining to realise a melody or memorable hook, ‘Being Bad Feels Pretty Good’ is particularly dull, a definite point of descent as the album peters towards an uninspiring close.
Key Track: ‘We Are Rockstars’