There was once a time, when I was younger, when listening to you seemed to be the definitive of being ‘cool’. Your willingness to move drum n’ bass out of the dark, urine-soaked rooms that it had previously inhabited was commendable and as well as making jungle beats that were damn good fun to dance to, you also managed to create some genuinely good music, adding musical genres from outside the typical underground sphere and marrying alternative metal and driving beats the likes that hadn’t been done so successfully since The Prodigy came out firing in the mid-90’s. It is to my disgust then that what I am listening to now, in the form of your new single, is nothing but an over-produced, over-ambitious attempt at a jungle ‘pop’ song. As if heralding the start with a trumpet section nicked from Ronson’s studio isn’t bad enough, you’ve also brought in one of the most generic and uninspiring vocalists these ears have ever had the misfortune to hear. All could be forgiven however if you’d at least provided us with a damn good energy rush when bringing the bass in. However, such is your sleek and shiny production; its addition into the song barely registers, leaving the whole thing pulsating aimlessly through five minutes of absolute mediocrity.
Whilst I am sure you believe that in trying to be different from your peers you are creating new and exciting sounds for us all “rave” to, but please Pendulum could you decide whether you wish to be a band or a drum n’ bass act, because at the moment all you’re providing us with is a horribly half-baked and shoddy form of neither. Yours sincerely.
