Saturday Spin: The Enemy UK "We'll Live & Die in these Towns"

One of my goals for the New Year is to listen more. Now I listen to music pretty constantly – but while home for the holidays I realized that when it comes to new, modern music I stick fairly close to the comfort zone of Hip Hop. This isn’t a bad thing, I love rap and it’s by and large the music that inspires me. That being said I’m a vinyl fiend (watch out for a relaunch over there soon!) whose crates are filled with music from across the board yet rarely do I allow those musical interests direct my listening habits when it comes to music of today.
"40 Days & 40 Nights"
I started Saturday Spin as a way to get myself to listen to stuff outside the box - namely a big pile of CDs I acquired while involved with KSUB, Seattle U’s radio station. I don’t fully know what to expect from the large majority of these discs, I’ve come across artists I know and artists I’ve never heard of. Music that I don’t see any value in and music that I’m sure no one else but me would see value in.


The Enemy UK (as they are dubbed here in the states) released their debut We’ll Live and Die in these Towns in July of 2007 making this hardly a new album (I’m trying to figure out where it came from as I thought most of the CDs I had were from more recent times) but still something worth a listen.
"It's Not OK"
Comprised of three members (what is it with Europe and the power trios?) they rock hard and heavy for most of this thirteen track affair, taking select moments to mellow out such as on the notable David Bowie penned “Five Years.” Vocalist Tom Clarke demonstrates the ability to actually express emotion by singing with some range and depth, understanding the use of his vocal chords he establishes himself as more than your average “emo” singer. The art brings out the emotion rather than the emotions being the art.
"Five Years"
Opening with a basic guitar riff (also courtesy of Clarke) “Aggro” is an up tempo romp that I imagine gets the audience worked up to a frenzy, although hopefully no one is taking their advice to set the streets on fire and instead just mosh!
"Aggro"
The New Year will see them on tour with seminal brit rockers Oasis which should help expose them to more people along with hopefully helping them break away from some of the more modern stereotypical “rock” sounds. Say what you want about the Gallagher’s (we know how the Hip Hop world feels!) they created a sound that was as much Beatles pop as it was a breath of fresh air to the rock genre – The Enemy is on track to developing their own style, lets just give ‘em a couple more albums and some time to grow; the talent is there.

Bonus Live Video: “You’re Not Alone”

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