Louder Than The Music

It's been a while coming, but now The Austin Francis Connection have released their first first full length album, named The Album. It was only a year ago that I was given the bands four track EP to review, a selection of songs showing off the talents of this band. Moving onto 2011 and the three piece have taken the best songs off that EP and made it into their first full album. The band have a similar style and sound to Nizlopi (who did the famous JCB song) and Tom & Olly with their acoustic hip hop sounds. So what is this new album like?

The first track is an introduction to the band, who they are and what they are about. The AFC Are The Greatest is a good strong start. The album then continues with Marmite which is basically about a list of things the band loves and hates, with some very funny lyrics in this song. The upbeat songs keep coming, up next is Everyone Knows Dave with its looping riff going on throughout, the song makes the observation that we all know at least one person called Dave. Well it might be true, there is even one that runs this website!

When listening to these songs, it leaves me with a smile on my face. Lyrically these aren't thrown together metaphors that make you sit down and spend ages thinking about what the meaning behind the songs are. The AFC don't do that, they write lyrics about themselves, about life and about how they feel. This can lead to some funny observation about the band's own lives. Any band that can fit lines about liking Liverpool FC, Camping and Cherries into a line must know what they are doing!

I love the song Jobcentre, it asks the question: What am I going to be when I'm older? Vocalist Edi Johnston then goes on to list what seems like all of the jobs that are out there. "When I get older, I'll come up with a plan... I'll try and do the best I can".. For all those happy, funny, upbeat songs, the album then takes a darker turn with Can You See The Stars? - a haunting piano and female vocal adding a different dimension to the album.

This album is full of honest tracks, about the band's observations of their own lives and friends, and that's probably the best way to sum up this album, very observational. The music is very similar throughout as there is only an acoustic guitar (which is played very well) and the very talented Hobbit beat-boxing on the tracks. This does tend to give a similar sound going on from song to song, but for a band with a vocalist, a beat-boxer and an acoustic guitar to make so many strong solid songs on one album, is an achievement worth applauding. I can imagine going to see The AFC after a day at a summer festival really being the perfect tonic, and singing and clapping along to their catchy choruses all night.

Review by Jono Davies

LTTM Rating 3.5 out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
Jobcentre
Can You See The Stars?
Hobbitskit v2.0