Start Something

 It was 1997 when drummer Ian Watkins and guitarist Mike Lewis founded Lostprophets. Soon they were joined by guitarist Mike Chiplin, who quickly swapped his guitar for the drums, while Ian traded the drums for the mic, plus another guitarist, Lee Gaze, bassist Stuart Richardson and keyboardist Jamie Oliver. Like every band, Lostprophets kicked off their by now 10-year career by recording demos, which had a bit more of a pop feel to them. Their first released demo was ‘Here Comes the Party’, a mix of pop, ska and hip hop, with some guitar-blazing thrown in and very fast rapping from Ian, which (thankfully!) we don’t hear from him anymore. They recorded a few more demos, followed in 2000 by their first album, thefakesoundofprogress. It already made them a fairly established name, they hit the road for a few smaller tours and were busy recording songs for the next album. They left their native Wales and crossed the pond to Los Angeles, where their second studio album, Start Something, was born. The story after the release repeated itself, only this time the guys reaped even bigger success, which we can credit to one of the best songs in their whole career, ‘Last Train Home’. They also shot an excellent music video, and the song itself climbed to the top of the charts in the UK and the US.

After the second album they didn’t go back home. Instead they stayed in the US and headed to Hawaii, where they started working on a new album, with singer Ian even pitching in on a few drum hits, since drummer Chiplin had left the band in the meantime. They found a replacement pretty quickly – 17-year-old Ilan Rubin joined them, and with him they finished their third studio effort, Liberation Transmission. Another hit that drove the world crazy was the song ‘Rooftops’, for which they even shot a proper video on a record. A bigger tour of Europe and the US followed. The closest they got to us was Nova Rock Fest in neighboring Austria in 2006.

Enough about the band, let’s focus on their second album, Start Something, where you can listen till you drop and gorge yourself on punk, rock and plenty of emo core across thirteen sawing, bouncy melodies. So let’s “start something,” as they say: the first song is ‘We Still Kill the Old Way’. It’s a punchy opening of heavy guitars that are pretty fast and melodic, and the screaming is of course not neglected (and I think it never will be). A great start! Up next is ‘To Hell We Ride’. I like the intro, full of squealing guitar melodies. Lots of bounce and screaming at the start of a great chorus. Once more: GREAT!

As I wrote at length earlier about the hit from this record … well, it’s time! ‘Last Train Home’ opens with a slow, melodic guitar intro, with some blazing and screaming at the start of the song that isn’t all that pronounced. For the first time you also hear gentle, slow keyboard rhythms. In short: catchy, melodic, blazing and downright fantastic! No wonder this very track took the top spots on the charts. The ending flows into the next song ‘Make A Move’, which is so bouncy it’ll wake you up in the morning with no trouble. ‘Burn Burn’ is the fifth song on the album. Another fast, melodic little number, this time without the electronic extras that adorn most of the tracks. ‘I Don’t Know’, ‘Hello Again’ and ‘Goodbye Tonight’ are songs you could say are very similar to each other; they’re all slower and only come alive at the chorus, but they still hit hard and again with some electronics, and finally you also hear a bit of a contribution from their former member DJ Stepzak. I really don’t know what got into them, because once again all the songs connect to one another. And then it’s time for another hit with the self-titled ‘Start Something’. The intro is mostly electronic with drums added, then an unbelievable, punchy grinding across every guitar imaginable kicks in. The ending is surprisingly slow. Highly recommended, it’s great!

‘A Million Miles’ brings together all the extras you can hear alongside the basic instruments on the whole record. Once again there’s no escaping the screaming. Next comes another hit that charmed the world, and me too. It’s a slight echo of a sequel to ‘Last Train Home’ – at least judging by the similar title – ‘Last Summer’. A slower but still punchy song in an 80s style. The drums, vocals and backing vocals are pushed furthest to the front, and in the middle a surprisingly high guitar solo pops up, which you keep hearing even after the other instruments join in. Very catchy and melodic. Next is the second-to-last track ‘We Are Godzilla, You Are Japan’, which is very blazing and pretty loud. I can describe it in just a few words: lots of screaming and aggressive rhythms. There’s very little regular singing, and the ending has a slightly jazzy tint. Interesting! And finally the last one, track 13, which in my opinion is the worst on the album – ‘Sway …’. It put me off listening within the first few minutes (it runs a full 10 minutes). It’s a decent song for meditation, but not for a gig, since emo fans would get even more depressed than they already are. But don’t get me wrong: not because of the lyrics, but because of the music.

The lyrics, written by frontman Ian, are confessional, full of memories and emotions charged with a positive energy.

While listening to the record I felt like the band was playing very different kinds of music; they swing from one extreme to the other, from pure rock and emo core to pop or even (just a tiny bit) rap. Still, they play and twist it all in a way that sounds punchy and still very much emo. Maybe that thought only crossed my mind because there’s so much electronics in almost every song. The guys won me over on the first listen, and I can’t say a bad word about any song, except ‘Sway …’. They’re hard to compare to other acts, since they really have their own playing style, which is good, because they don’t sound like other bands that blindly follow the music of their idols. The record is excellent and I think they should keep going in the style they have on this album, because their career is nowhere near over any time soon, since they’ve only just made it to the top.