AS it opens with a rush of frantic drums and guitar, This Is Your Life gets the listener’s blood pumping from the start. That opening track, Are We Alive, settles into a strong shout-along anthem, taking in love, lust and loneliness, in the way Killers did on Hot Fuss, albeit with a far grittier, grungier feel which works wonders.
When Things Fall Apart and the lovely Landmine almost sound like tracks that nearly made the cut for Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball, while The Forgotten Way beautifully pays homage to Doves and their Last Broadcast, and all the imagery being drunk on Christmas Eve can bring.
Anthemic seems to be what Augustines are going for, with big but singable choruses, at once catchy but unmemorable, as heard in Running In Place, while elsewhere May You Keep Well echoes Peter Gabriel’s early Nineties work and the excellent No Need To Explain recalls elements of U2’s better work.
*Augustines play Fibbers, York, on July 13, and Leeds University Stylus on Sunday, October 23.
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