The prospect of an entire album by Grammatics filled me with a little trepidation at first. I really liked the single 'The Vague Archive' last year but an entire album by them didn't fill me with the energy and ebullience I felt it should. And in practice, it is as I feared, a little boring. I'm sure snarkier music journalists would be more contemptuous in their analysis but the simple fact is, this is a set of 11 dull insular songs, angular and teeming with teenage despair, but lacking in anything that draws you into its world. It's a music that seeks to join teenagers in a joint communal angst. It alienates any other age range through its insipid vague stabs at emotion. There is a complete disregard for melody, a forthright self-belief in something that should have been left on the demo table. The cutesy boy-girl synth play-off doesn't really work except on the single and 'Inkjet Lakes' which plays synths against violins in an effective way. No music should be as insipid and dull as this. Music should uplift or join us together, arm us against doom, it should move and inspire. You should love music more than life itself and this comes nowhere near any of those emotions.
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