You All Look The Same To Me

The culture clash of rock and dance music was never quite so literal as it is with the line up behind Archive’s third album, the South London studio duo of Griffiths and Keeler joined by Craig Walker, ex of fine Dublin guitar types Power Of Dreams.

It’s a strange hybrid – you can’t really dance to the dance bits, nor can you rock to the rock bits – but it certainly works. The slow, deliberate sound of certain tracks betrays the trip-hop roots of their pre-Walker debut Londinium, but You All Look The Same To Me moves the band on a massive step. They are nothing if not ambitious (opener ‘Again’ comes in at a weighty 16 minutes) and their electronic boffinry is tempered with a mass of more organic instruments. Strings, trumpets, even the harmonica of one time Yardbird Alan Glen, bring a human sheen to proceedings. And it is a very human album, its heart lying in the very depths of emotion.

With titles such as ‘Numb’, ‘Goodbye’, ‘Finding It So Hard’ and ‘Hate’ giving the game away, it may be an engrossing listen but is far from a light-hearted one. At times it even recalls the dark vision of Pink Floyd, albeit given a modern twist. Walker is on fine form, hugely comfortable in an environment that we might have least expected to find him, giving the band’s music a previously unheard voice. While others are content to use the technology of the studio to create countless brainless summertime anthems, Archive walk a far more melancholy road. Save this one for a rainy day.