If this album had the Foo Fighters logo on the front Rolling Stone would be declaring it the band’s best album since ‘The Colour and the Shape’ and it would sell millions of records. Seriously. Dave Grohl may well be writing pansy dad rock stuff now, but he’d kill to have a batch of songs as good as the likes of ‘Blood on my Hands‘ and ‘No Excuses’. Sure, Attack! Attack! are yet to write their ‘Everlong’, but this album is not only one of the best British records of the year, it’s one of the best records of the year full stop.
Let’s rewind and let me draw breath before I go on a hyperbole spree. Made up of ex-members of the likes of Dopamine and Pete’s Sake, Attack! Attack! have certainly paid their dues over the last few years. Their debut album was an absolute cracker that drew critical acclaim from many, but didn’t quite send the band to the levels they maybe deserved. If I’m honest it was an album I really, really enjoyed at the time – and still love now – but it hasn’t aged fantastically well. It sounds a little dated, but in a good way. I don’t think that’s a criticism that will ever be labelled at ‘The Latest Fashion’. It sounds like a band on top of their game: a band that knows how to write some absolutely huge melodies and choruses that deserve to be sung along with gusto in some of the world’s biggest stadiums. You think I’m over-egging things a bit? Seriously, give these songs a whirl. They are MASSIVE.
There’s a confidence here that seeps out of the speakers from the first riff of ‘Everybody Knows’ and it doesn’t let up. Sure, there are a couple of skippable tracks along the way (I think ‘Best Mistake’ would have been better as the last song as it disrupts the flow a bit), but overall this is balls to the wall rock music that will appeal to fans of fans of all different types of musical genre. ‘No Excuses’ has a brilliant riff that kicks things off nicely, ‘My Shoes’ is the kind of song the Foo Fighters desperately need to be influenced by, while the band absolutely nail the softer ‘Blood on my Hands‘ which really does deserve to be a chart hit. The band are helped out by The Blackout‘s Sean Smith who lends vocals to the album’s title track, while The Guns chant their way through ‘Not Afraid’.
‘The Latest Fashion’ takes the band to the next level. There’s no reason why Attack! Attack! can’t at the very least reach the same level of success as Hundred Reasons did at the pinnacle of their career. They’re similar types of rockin’ beasts which deserve radio airtime and it would be an absolute travesty if these Welsh lads didn’t have the same level of mainstream success.