The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMusicAlbum reviews

The Sherlocks – World I Understand

The Sherlocks – World I Understand | Album review
18 January 2022
Francis Nash
Avatar
Francis Nash
18 January 2022

Music review

Francis Nash

World I Understand

★★★★★

Release date

21st January 2022

Highlights

Falling, Games You Play

Links

Twitter Facebook Instagram Website

If there is one genre that parallels the era of binaries that has crept over from the last decade into this, it is the British indie-rock genre. Whereas the commercial rock artists of the 00s seemed aesthetically homogenous, fans had a variety of sounds coming from the traditional guitar, bass and drums setup. Currently, though, the two opposing sounds in rock seem to be commercial indie-rock and post-punk-influenced indie with the latter garnering more critical respect and the former generating grassroots fan approval. 

Despite having undergone a line-up change and working with Manic Street Preachers’s regular producer Dave Eringa for their third album World I Understand, The Sherlocks still remain in that commercial camp. The album provides sufficient material to satisfy their fans, but casual listeners will find the glaring issue with this album is that the formula and construction for each song is blindingly predictable. It grounds listeners in remembering that, while chord progressions and riffs of the catchiest songs seem so simple, pop songs of any genre are devilishly hard to craft. Indeed, principal songwriter Kiaran Crooks only creates two particular songs that stand out amongst a sea of derivative offerings that border on cliché.

Ignoring the instrumental opener, opening song and first single Falling has a delightfully darker guitar sound than previous Sherlocks tracks and borrows the infamous one-note piano riff from The Stooges I Wanna Be Your Dog, which tantalisingly whets the appetite for the remainder of the album. The only time the ears are pricked again is the serene Games You Play, which morphs from a solo acoustic number into a sweet calypso-influenced piece of acoustic-pop loveliness.

Aside from that, though, the tracks are a blur of uninspiring echo-treated riffs (On the Run and Last to Leave) with occasional contrived forays into synth sounds (City Lights and Sorry) derivatively imitating The Killers and Kings of Leon. Bearing in mind neither of those revered, stadium-filling acts have achieved a Top Ten single since the late 00s, it seems senseless to mimic a sound that struggled to generate a wide listenership.

Perhaps, though, The Sherlocks are content with the formula knowing it will please their devoted fanbase. Regardless, it is difficult to align this album’s staid approach with the spirited ambition they demonstrated when they first came onto the scene. Overall, one is left wondering whether this is the best they can muster. Surely not?

★★★★★

Francis Nash

World I Understand is released on 21st January 2022. For further information or to order the album visit The Sherlocks’s website here.

Watch the video for the single Sorry here:

Related Itemsalbumalternative rockindie rockreview

More in Album reviews

Lykke Li – EYEYE

★★★★★
Georgia Howlett
Read More

Florence and the Machine – Dance Fever

★★★★★
Ronan Fawsitt
Read More

Warpaint – Radiate Like This

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Arcade Fire – We

★★★★★
Ronan Fawsitt
Read More

Blossoms – Ribbon Around the Bomb

★★★★★
Georgia Howlett
Read More

Memorial – Memorial

★★★★★
Mae Trumata
Read More

Fontaines DC – Skinty Fia

★★★★★
Jasper Watkins
Read More

Girlpool – Forgiveness

★★★★★
Charlie Peters
Read More

Patrick Watson – Better in the Shade

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Music review

Francis Nash

World I Understand

★★★★★

Release date

21st January 2022

Highlights

Falling, Games You Play

Links

Twitter Facebook Instagram Website

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Banter Jar at Lion & Unicorn Theatre: “An authentic and timely one-woman show”
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Three-Michelin-star restaurants L’Effervescence and SingleThread announce first post-Covid collaboration in Tokyo
    Food & Drinks
  • The Road Dance
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • Rodeo
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Alma Viva
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • “When you’re presented with different dilemmas in life, you respond accordingly”: Debbie Kurup on The Cher Show
    Theatre
  • Lykke Li – EYEYE
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • “No-one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’”: A rendez-vous with Tom Cruise at Cannes
    Cannes
  • Rodeo
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Alma Viva
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • 2:22 A Ghost Story at Criterion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The House of Shades at Almeida Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Final Cut (Coupez!): “A love letter to filmmaking”
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

“It’s always worth fighting for what you believe in”: Jannis Niewöhner on Munich: The Edge of War
Miles Kane – Change the Show | Album review