British India - Thieves (2008)

Download Album:

Purchase CD:  

I am lying in a dark room, only Declan Melia and Nic Wilson’s voices and rich guitar chords fill the silence, Matt O’Gorman strikes a thunderous beat on a kick drum and my heart jumps into rhythm in time with it, Will Drummond strums heavily down a bass line and all senses are awakened.

Honestly, I’m in an overly lit room with my uni assignment pushed aside, coffee at my elbow, papers scattered at my feet and only moments ago thoughts of my day at work pulsated through my brain occupying every spare cell.

Now the music from British India’s new album "Thieves", seeps through my skin into my blood stream sending a rush of endorphins to my imagination allowing me to believe that I am faraway from this reality.

Naturally I began to listen to the album from the start, mostly expecting it to be in the background while I focused on other activities and noting my occasional thoughts.

God Is Dead (Meet The Kids) proved to be too much of a distraction, so I turn everything else off, allowing only the music to envelope me.

Reaching for the insert I am delighted to find a lyrics spreadsheet, now I feel like I can connect on another level, and I think other listeners will agree, especially with lines like :

“I can’t say, but it still shows, I don’t want you to go. And underneath our conversation an unspoken truth. If you wait for me, I’ll wait for you.”

The sincere reality expressed in this hard, take-no-more-shit album is altogether confronting and comforting simultaneously. Airport Tags is the story of a girl who knows the heartache of being “broken in every way, wasted nights turn into wasted days”.

Voluminous in lyrics and melody Golden Years begins with a soft and sincere guitar solo that carries the song through at a solid pace complimenting the lyrics “I think about us now and then, these golden years that we are drowning in, well spend our whole lives trying to get to one place we don’t want to be”

Similar to their huge hit Tie Up my Hands in the raw and genuine rock flavour I Said I’m Sorry definitely demonstrates progression in creativity and is most appropriate to be the first single released from the album. Especially with the accessible beat and lyrics :

“I said I’m sorry we can shake hands on it!”

Finally This Dance is Loaded is the song suffering from the hardest workout on my CD player and IPOD. I don’t intend on letting up anytime soon. Careful not to have your knee to close to a table because I guarantee you will be bobbing it up and down in a vigorous manner if you are not moved to let down your hair and have thrash around the lounge room.

It is another accessible song, while it won’t reach to the core of your life quest, it will provide food for thought, fuel for the journey etc etc, with no more room for cliché’s I’ll leave it there with my sincere recommendation that you get your hands on the hot little Thieves, oh look at that, I squeezed one more in.

RATING: 4 out of 5

Download Album:

Purchase CD:  

Brought To You By The Dwarf