As the ambassadors for the latest and greatest possibly non-existent genre of British rock music, new rave, Klaxons have a lot of weight on their shoulders. Having already been hailed by New Musical Express as "the most thrilling and visionary band Britain's had in more than a decade," it seemed anything less than a perfect debut would be an utter disappointment. Unfortunately, like many of the albums the British press goes crazy for, Myths of the Near Future is imperfect and not exactly the life-changing experience it was hyped to be. It is, however, loaded with enough catchy songs and musical experimentation to warrant a listening from anyone who likes their trendy indie rock mixed with electronic dance influences.
Rave purists tend to denounce Klaxons as inauthentic, but for those of us who are too young and American to even know what rave purism is, that shouldn't be much of a problem. Maybe this reviewer is simply not in tune with the various subgenres that constitute the ever-expanding NME nomenclature, but this new rave music that Klaxons play is often not noticeably different from the dance-punk of bands like The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem. And just as those bands have risen to a sizable degree of success and prominence in the modern rock world during the past few years, one should expect the same from this talented British trio.
The hallmark of new rave is the combination of traditional rock guitar lines and techno-like synth as well as drum-machine parts. The best example of this genre-bending heterogeneity is probably "Atlantic to Interzone," the lead single that sets these disparate musical ideas to a frenetic pace. Though Klaxons get a lot of mileage from combining different musical styles, after a few tracks many of the tunes start to lack any distinguishing characteristics. It is hard to criticize a band for sounding too much like itself, but many of this album's songs are so similar that the later half of the disc becomes boring. Boring? Not exactly a quality one looks for in a rave band.
There lies the major weakness of Myths: Klaxons have found a great idea (combining techno and punk rock) that cannot really sustain itself throughout the course of an entire album. For example, the penultimate song "Four Horseman of 2012" is one of the album's catchiest and most intense numbers, but after playing the first 10 songs on the disc, it just seems like more of the same.
Klaxons are so clearly a talented band that the weaknesses of Myths of the Near Future are especially disappointing. With a unique sound and high energy level, they're still a band that rock and dance-music fans should check out. The problem is, evidently, that the album form is not an effective delivery method for their music. Critics have frequently bemoaned the prevalence of online downloads for diminishing the importance of the album in popular music, but a band like Klaxons makes a kind of music that is meant to be heard as individual tracks. Myths of the Near Future is less impressive than the sum of its parts, but those individual parts are often extremely compelling.
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