Domino Effect
Despite their meteorological moniker, The Blizzards are no musical flakes. Ultimately, The Domino Effect should see plenty more fans falling at their feet.
Olaf Tyaransen, 15 Sep 2008
Following on from their platinum-selling debut, A Public Display Of Affection, this follow-up from Westmeath’s answer to Weezer is mostly a confident, cocky affair. With producer Michael Beinhorn (Marilyn Manson, Chili Peppers) at the controls once again, there are few symptoms of ‘difficult second album’ syndrome.
‘Buy It, Sell It’ is a jauntily upbeat opener with a neat guitar riff in the chorus. New single ‘Trust Me I’m A Doctor’ – about a dead cert chat-up line guys use on gullible females when holidaying abroad – opens with a cheeky “la, la, la” that sounds like an outtake from The Boomtown Rats.
The jauntily scathing ‘Money Doesn’t Buy You Class’ follows, and then it’s ‘Three Cheers For Modern Medicine’ – an ode to Valium’s effectiveness in combating the fear of flying: “And the magic of modern medicine means/That I will fly with you to wherever you wanna go tonight/And the magic of modern medicine means/That I will finally be the man that I know I am not.”
For the most part, there’s not much depth to the lyrics. Frontman Niall Breslin is a songwriter with a breezy Ray D’Arcy Show kind of sensibility – many of his tunes are humorous stories or everyday observations about life, lads, rich bitches, relationships and text messaging. That’s probably a big part of the band’s appeal (having said that, he totally surpasses himself on the brilliantly poppy two-fingers-to-the-zeitgeist title-track).
Musically, they’re not exactly reinventing the rock/pop/ska wheel, but the playing is always tight and occasionally inventive (‘Silence Is Violence’ sounds like a tequila-fuelled night in Mexico and, played loud enough, the stomping ‘The Reason’ makes you want to kick in a door). There’s hooks and harmonies aplenty, but they’re far better at rocking out than they are at Coldplay-ish introspection.
Despite their meteorological moniker, The Blizzards are no musical flakes. Ultimately, The Domino Effect should see plenty more fans falling at their feet.
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