‘Beyond The Neighbourhood’ by Athlete

Athlete’s third album, released in 2007, is a curious affair. When Athlete first album was released, it was a quirky indie type record, whereas their second album ironed out all these quirks, aiming for a more conventional Coldplay-esque sound. ‘Beyond The Neighbourhood’ fall somewhere between these two positions.

It starts with a fairly low key instrumental warm-up which segues into ‘Hurricane’, the lead single. As you’d expect from a first single, it’s a reasonably upbeat anthemic number, and certainly one of the stronger tracks from the album. The next couple of tracks continue in a reasonably similar vein, livened up by some great drumming. In the middle of the album comes ‘The Outsiders’, the core of the record. Again, it’s a fairly unassuming track, but nicely produced, with some good harmonies.

The trouble with this album, is that second half doesn’t really offer anything new. The first six tracks make a good lesson, the next five are all fine as they are, but there’s nothing that really stands out. As such, the album drifts to a vaguely unsatisfying end, which is shame after its promising beginning.