ALBUM REVIEW: Alien Human Emotions – Asylums

In this age of Apple Music, Spotify and the like, bands are finding it increasingly difficult to produce music as a viable career. Bands like MILK TEETH and CREEPER have members who work part-time jobs as well as performing with their bands on the biggest of stages Southend’s ASYLUMS took it upon themselves to go down the DIY root with their debut record in 2016 and their latest record, Alien Human Emotions, elevates them through genres that were only touched upon on their debut and now they find themselves serving the college rock set while expanding their sound.

Brit-rock has been around for a long time and over the last few years has seen a bit of a renaissance. Bands like THE XCERTS have delivered the next iteration of the genre, in albums like Hold On To Your Heart that bands like HUNDRED REASONS ploughed over 10 years ago in the genre’s heyday in the mid 2000s. Following their debut record Kill Brain Waves which balanced Brit-rock and nerdier shoegaze indie rock, ASYLUMS are bringing it right up to 2018 through Alien Human Emotions with everything the band have worked on on previous material with new influences and added musicianship.

The biggest selling point of ASYLUMS‘ latest record is that they have drawn from many inspirations but have put their own spin on it. Look at the bombastic, deliriousness of When We Wake Up or the clenched jaw fury of Napalm Bubblegum. Slacker indie rock is the backbone to the album with its centrepiece being Millennials, a word created to group together the youth who were born in or around the millennium. Its music and lyrics centred on disillusioned youth mixed with an unfulfilled relationship where you feel the world is crumbling around you and nobody understands you. It also throbs with a political undercurrent coiled like a cobra, frustrated and backed into a corner ready to strike.

The album has a crackling sense of melody with tracks like Day Release To The Moon with its BEATLES referencing melody or When We Wake Up which sounds like ASH having a fight with FEEDER. ASYLUMS‘ live shows in its frenetic, living on the edge chaos will have more material to pull from with the inclusion of this album’s lively tracks and will continue to help diversify their setlist moving forward.

It all concludes in a record that has an infectious attitude to its lyrics and music with a record produced well, if a little over-produced in its keyboard work, at its nucleus. Alien Human Emotions has a nervous, jittery energy to it as seen in songs like Critical Mass or the sexual politics of Sexual Automation. This is a record that will propel ASYLUMS further into the mindset of the general public, and push or pull the band in different directions.

Bands coming in on their second record always have a hard time because they generally have a well-received debut at their back but if the band is going to experiment it’s generally on other albums and not their second. ASYLUMS have taken the leap to experimentation on their sophomore effort and it works. There is enough here on Alien Human Emotions to keep fans of the band coming back but also enough there to expand their need to be creative and to get the music out into the world.

Rating: 7/10

Alien Human Emotions is out now via Cool Thing Records.

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