Search - Stateless :: Stateless

Look ma, no guitars!

Joseph Geni | Evanston, Illinois United States | 09/13/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the better and more interesting records to come out this year. I found out about this because the lead singer, Chris James (who sounds uncannily like Coldplay's Chris Martin, but writes better lyrics) collaborated with DJ Shadow on his new album "The Outsider." James fronts this Leeds 5-piece, the lineup of which is missing a noteworthy instrument: guitar. Instead they have drums, bass, vox, keyboard/programming and turntables. The result is that the band's debut full-length album captures all the Britrock melancholy of Radiohead, Coldplay or Elbow but, freed from guitars, it explores all sorts of other scapes that makes it entirely distinct from those bands. The sound is dominated by pianos, samples, strings, etc., and the drums loom large in the mix. And in hindsight, the DJ Shadow connection is natural, as the band employs some of his nostalgic sampling, subtle scratching, and especially his funky tempos and breakbeats. As with Radiohead and their ilk, I wish these guys would occasionally strike a slightly less gloomy and world-weary tone, just to change the pace, but this is an album to get by a band to watch."