Originally posted at www.LoudandQuiet.com
Olympus Mons are evidently one very confused young band. Mistaking ‘energy’ with ‘talent’, these three young men, named Aaron, Norbert and Moran for those who are interested, thrash their guitars in an pseudo-angular manner and whack those skins like there is no tomorrow, but unfortunately for them (and the listener) the noises they create are not particularly interesting or noteworthy.
Opener, ‘Martial Law’ sounds like vocalist Aaron is having an argument with one of his many multiple personalities. First, he splutters on about standing and stopping, which sounds more like a description of a creaky old bus as opposed to the anecdotes of a sharp and witty indie raconteur, then, another dimension of Aaron enters into the piece and waxes lyrical about “spending money on tax and military” in a rather irritated manner. Sadly, these statements come across as more half-arsed “war is bad, yeah?” thoughts as opposed to having any real depth or substance.
Olympus Mons stumble on in this manner, discussing kitchen sink tales that are incredibly insular and almost impossible to relate to. The trio rattle through flat-sounding songs, with lyrics that barely go anywhere. On ‘Journey Chapter VII’ Aaron shrieks “learn to read between the lines”, the problem is that there are no lines to begin with. Olympus Mons rely on shouting unrelated words at the listener, which becomes terribly tedious after 16 songs, and while this could be considered a stab at projecting some sort of lyrical fluidity to match the frenetic instruments, Aaron’s rambles begin to sound more like a shopping list as opposed to insightful thoughts.
It isn’t until ‘Follow You Down’ that the listener really grasps the underlying ideas behind Aaron’s lyricism and in turn, Olympus Mons. Throughout this track, Aaron shrieks ‘let’s be A listers, we’re gonna have it all/ look at my face I’m in the News of the World/I’m in The Sun’. While ‘Follow you down’ seems to be referring to a certain character of rock and could even be viewed as an attack on the intricate relationship between British indie pin ups and the tabloids, Aaron seems to genuinely want to become an ‘A lister’. For all the snarling attitude of this piece, the listener cannot help but notice the fame (or should that be tabloid?) hungry nature of Olympus Mons.
Bearing this in mind, Olympus Mons’, or specifically, Aaron’s phrasing begins to make more sense. This is in no way an attack on the lead singer, it is just that his voice is phenomenally high in the mix when compared with the rest of the band, but his mimicking of the vocal tricks of Kele Okereke and Luke Pritchard weaken the album significantly. Bloc Party dominate the first half of the album, with the groups signature mirroring of Kele’s vocals constantly appearing as a cheap party trick on Olympus Mons’ debut, then on ‘Sell me to the Wind’ Aaron tries a different tactic and goes for Pritchard’s strange method of singing certain words; time becomes “toooime”, line becomes “loooine” and so on. Frankly, you would be forgiven for thinking that this disjointed album is some sort of Frankenstein creation made up of half ‘Silent Alarm’, half ‘Inside In/Inside Out’.
While it always disheartening to knock a relatively new and fresh band, Olympus Mons seriously need to note the difference between being influenced by a band and mimicking them. For now though, Olympus Mons will remain a mystified and needy young group and ‘Nothing’s Gonna Spoil My Day Today’ is, in turn, an energetic but somewhat disappointing record.
4/10
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