Archive - Fuck U
Released: 7th August 2005
Label: East West
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Swearing in music. It’s not big, nor clever, and when a band unnecessarily accentuates the point by printing the name of their track in black on white capital letters, it’s not going to do them any favours in my book. It’d be hard to make swearing in music sound cool and eloquent at the best of times, but when you’ve got the likes of that Eamon toe-rag flogging it in the pop charts, it’s nigh on impossible. Shudder…it also reminds me of ‘Nu-metal’ and Fred Durst…ok, enough!
‘FUCK U’ begins in a downbeat fashion with singer Darius droning lines like “All I want is to see you in terrible pain” or flatly spewing “You are scum, you are scum…,” set to a monotonous bassline and synth backing track. Things liven up slightly with some fuzz guitars and live drums a couple of minutes in, but by that time – and despite repeated listens – you have sort of already lost the will to live and will no doubt be craving something more positive or otherwise chilled to aid the recovery process.
So, what then to make of this somewhat overly egregious, angst-ridden, spleen-venting ‘statement’? An ode to Tony Blair and/or George Bush perhaps? With lines like: “Can’t believe you were once just like anyone else / Than you grow and became like the devil himself,” it’s easy to draw such conclusions. There is a definitely a certain amount of political feeling contained on here, which is something if nothing else.
But - and it’s a big but, I thought music was supposed to uplift, inspire, move you? Take Portishead for example, (who Archive purportedly take some of their cues from), who proved that you could be harrowing and downbeat, but still inventive and highly listenable. I’m afraid that, at the 5-minute mark, this is overlong and will only serve in bumming you out. “Big in France,” according to the press release and website - need I say more.
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