I have a lot of CDs to review and little time, so I shall keep this one fairly brief. To be honest, I don’t need to go on and on about this record because the music does the talking – it’s brilliant. For me ‘Save Yourself A Lifetime‘ is an excellent record from start to finish and the band’s best moment so far bya country mile. From the exquisite artwork to the angry undertone of each track, this takes in all kinds of influences, yet comes up trumps with a record that sounds absolutely brilliant.
‘Save Yourself A Lifetime‘ is a record steeped in anger. There’s a passage on the artwork that states how much trouble the band had recording this record, summed up with a diatribe about how it seems impossible to make a career in the industry without ‘selling out’. And this is a major theme that runs through this album – about how the big business is killing the independent music scene. And while it’s not a subject that hasn’t been touched on before, Burns Out Bright do it in such a way you cannot help but be inspired. On ‘Optimistic Nihilistic’ they sing “cookie cutter kids with faux rock discs, indifferent to a culture given to them, everything d.o.a. start waking up to the fact that all of this is the same.” And it rings true. Personally I receive the same old same old every single day with a lack of originality but, perhaps more worryingly, a lack of talent. And, fittingly, BOB’s message isn’t diluted or lost in the quality of the record as each song is stacked with twists, turns and plenty of melodies.
On ‘Replication Is the Highest Form of Replication’, the band sing the following which I think sums up this album really, really well: “we need a new sound, and we need it now. not an empty gesture, not a name brand for our back. life is music, this is our soundtrack. to the way we live our lives, to the way we feel inside. to the way we hold these dreams and hope they never die. we are strong, we’re alive, and frustrated inside. someday we’ll have our say and we won’t be denied. sing while you can, bide your time, know that you live a lie. soon you’ll be moved aside for the next in line.”
Get this record. Now.
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paul