When your day job is to be a DJ, a Producer and a Label Boss you’re going to be a busy boy. Especially when writing your third studio album, writing tunes for the soundtracks of hit shows and films such as CSI, Ugly Betty and Borat. Not to mention the countless remixes for everyone from Foals to Pink and everyone in between. Hyper is a man filled with ideas and every single one he’s ever had seems to have been planted somewhere in this third studio offering 'The Panic'.
If I was being critical, and as a review writer I would have to point out any criticisms, I’d say that large parts of it were a mess. A shambolic mixture of hard guitars, trance rhythms and clichéd lyrics from start to finish which certainly tip their hats to everyone from Nine Inch Nails to the Prodigy, but falls a bit short of capturing the best moments of either.
Ok. We should probably get to the nitty-gritty behind why this is so disappointing. A lot of what’s on offer here has potential. In fact some of the best moments of the album involve the first minute of each song, whether it be the low rumbles of industrial guitar during opener and single 'The End', or the frustrated jagged bass line during the opening of 'My World'. However, both those tracks move on to bounce around between different musical styles like a kid on a bouncy castle, jumping in all directions leaving this writer almost confused by what was going on. It’s clear these tracks were designed for a dance floor but as soon as I can imagine someone getting a groove together, the song slows down or quietens without warning and you’re lost again. Not a good sign.
Of course, some of the tracks that don’t grab you in its mouth and shake you around until there’s none of you left are, by contrast (which is a running theme throughout this record), just…there, existing as if they have nothing else better to do. 'Beyond the Rave' never gets out of second gear. 'Cheap Thrills' advertises a certain narcotic over and over again until it’s rammed in the brain so hard you feel like you’re on it and 'I See Fire' is one of the most inconsequential album closers I’ve ever heard. It’s almost like those in charge got bored and felt like they just had to get an album out because they had lots of buttons and loops left over that hadn’t been used and they haven’t done one for a while. Even worse, some of the songs get bored too and just finish out of nowhere! That’s ok from time to time but it happens too often here.
In all fairness, and in keeping with the contrast mechanic, there are some tracks where it clicks together faultlessly and those tracks are, admittedly, excellent. Seventh track 'Tear the Silence' is an utterly beautiful and unexpected slow slice of electro pop where lead vocalist Axe really puts her voice on show to great effect. You can feel the fragile emotion that tinges this song and while it’s totally out of place combined with the more fast-paced fell of the rest of the album, it is otherwise phenomenal and maybe one of my favourite songs of the year so far. 'Machine' is also a tub-thumping taste of what this album could do if it kept things a little more simple and it’s all the better for it. As stated at the beginning there is plenty of potential to be found here, it’s just too busy being swallowed up by the needlessly complex production.
So, to sum up: The parts that are good are very, very good. The parts that are bad are very, very bad. There is no middle ground here. 'The Panic' is the ultimate Marmite album. Full of raw energy. Mind-bendingly confusing. Brilliant and frustrating in equal measure.
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If I was being critical, and as a review writer I would have to point out any criticisms, I’d say that large parts of it were a mess. A shambolic mixture of hard guitars, trance rhythms and clichéd lyrics from start to finish which certainly tip their hats to everyone from Nine Inch Nails to the Prodigy, but falls a bit short of capturing the best moments of either.
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