Welsh rockers Lostprophets love to keep their fans waiting in eager anticipation, going through the cycle of releasing an album, touring, disappearing for two years, building up their big re-entrance and repeating the said cycle. This is a great technique if every album you produce excels the previous, but in the case of Lostprophets most would argue that they peaked at the release of ‘Start Something’.
The band’s sound has varied dramatically throughout their career, slowly evolving to become a commercialised rock band with more chart friendly songs. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the Lostprophetsthat produced ‘Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja’ seem completely different to the ones that have produced their fifth full length album ‘Weapons’. The reason behind this is likely to be that they have matured both as individuals and musically, but there’s something about this revised sound doesn’t quite cut it for me.
‘Weapons’ is a well written album it’s just not as complex as Lostprophets previous work. ‘Bring Em’ Down’ was definitely the best choice as opening track, with the chanted countdown heading straight into infectious synth and guitars. It’s probably the strongest track on the album, although second single ‘We Bring An Arsenal’ is just as strong and particularly catchy with group chants and a memorable chorus.
Listening to the next seven tracks none of them seem to particularly stand out. They definitely don’t deserve slating because the songs themselves are of high quality, it’s just hard to believe that a band who once produced nu metal albums are now producing songs that in some cases would be described as rock pop.
The band ends the album on a perfect note with ‘Can’t Get Enough’. After spending just under 40 minutes listening to a record that didn’t stand out a great deal this track really makes up for it. Five minutes in assumed the end of the album and after then being subjected to seven and a half minutes of silence it was a delight to hear music that resembled the old Lostprophets, with Ian Watkins bringing back those raw screams and overall producing two and a half minutes of grittier, heavier music.
Lostprophets do deserve credit for ‘Weapons’, it’s just a very different record when compared to earlier releases ‘Fakesoundofprogress’ and ‘Start Something’. ‘Weapons’ is a less in your face, easy listening record that is likely to appeal to a much broader market, but could have cost the band original fans due to their evolving genre over a 15 year career. It would be nice to hear a record with a bit more of an edge from Lostprophets next time around with a similar style to final track ‘Can’t Get Enough’, but regardless the band has produced a credible albeit different album with ‘Weapons’.
3.5/5
‘Weapons’ by Lostprophets is available now on Epic Records/Fearless Records (US).
Lostprophets links: Official Website|Facebook|Twitter
Words by Hannah Gillicker
