As a follow-up to their debut album, The Fake Sound of Progress, the quintuplet from England, the Lost Prophets hit us with Start Something. Once again here is a band that had trouble improving on their first album, but that is not to say that this is not a worthy album by any means. This album is almost as good as their debut; it just seems that fans are in dire need of a follow-up album that destroys its predecessor. The only main difference between the two albums is that Progress sounds more like an independent album from a band that is playing their hearts out and is real; whereas “Start Something” sounds like there were pressures and styles that the band was forced to meet.
The songs “I Don’t Know” and “Hello Again” seem to be the songs that fall into that category. They sound plastic. With songs such as “We Still Kill the Old Way,” “Last Train Home,” and the title track “Start Something,” fans will be pleased with the band’s musical progress and performance.
These songs get back to the root of the real Lost Prophets. Not to mention that front man Ian Watkin can still scream his head off and be sincere at the same time.
The layout of Start Something mirrors Progress in the sense that the lyrics on both albums are mellow and then hit listeners with hardcore and catchy choruses. The only problem with the new album is that the genre of music changes too often. It goes from nu-metal, to hardcore, to hip-hop influenced metal to indie rock. It’s not that this is as much of a problem as it is a nuisance to the listener because it’s hard to get into the flow of the songs without being immediately withdrawn because of the change of styles. Once again, songs are proceeded by trip-hop beats, jazz riffs, and scratching on turn tables which seems to be an attempt to show fans and critics that the band is multi-talented.
The only time when the intermissions attached to the songs seemed to make sense was at the end of “A Million Miles Away,” which features an answering machine message that leads up to the song “Last Summer.” The song is obviously a reflection of the pressures that the band feels when it comes to being with their friends and performing at the same time.
By making songs like this and incorporating lyrics that the average listener can relate to, the band succeeds in having fans relate to them.
Another problem that the new album has is that it ends with the song “Sway” which is a total emo-sounding song. This seems to be the new trend among bands, and it is a trend that needs to be broken. All songs like that do is have fans question their purpose on the album because there is no need for such nonsense on a nu-metal/ hardcore album.
Although the Lost Prophets sound like a mixture of Faith No More, Linkin Park, and Incubus, they somehow manage to also create their own sound. Even though they have three songs that aired on the radio, they are still somewhat original and have not totally sold out.
As a whole, fans of The Lost Prophets will be satisfied with Start Something. This is a good album and is definitely worth checking out. Some things have changed, but altogether the album is just as solid as the first and this should please the listeners.