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Liam Carey reviews
Furious Angels
Cheeky/BMG
- Year: 2002
- Rating: 7/10
- Cat. No: 74321939732
Track listing:
- 1. Prelude
2. Furious Angels
3. Will You Follow Me?
4. Left Me For Dead
5. I’m Not Driving Anymore
6. Clubbed To Death
7. There’s Only Me
8. Instrumental
9. Nothing At All
10. Born Yesterday
11. Speed Me Towards Death
12. Drinking Song
13. Pause
14. One And The Same (Coda)
15. Clubbed To Death 2
The debut album from Australian soundscape maestro Rob Dougan has endured a prolonged gestation, due mostly to legal wranglings connected with the Cheeky label imprint. Originally scheduled for release in 1998, Furious Angels finally arrives in whole, almost six years after its title track reached No.65 on the UK singles chart, and a good three years since Clubbed To Death achieved prominence through use in both a TV advert for an ultra-stylish alcoholic beverage and also the soundtrack to a pivotal part of 1999’s groundbreaking feature film The Matrix.
Talk about an inability to cash in on that momentum. Nevertheless, Clubbed To Death has now hit the middle region of the Top 40 (though that success still falls short of its sustained ubiquity) and Dougan’s stop-start career can at least have a real chance of taking off.
Unlike his nearest contemporary Craig Armstrong, who sticks to instrumental pieces sliced with the odd high profile guest-vocal appearance thrown in, Rob Dougan elects to perform what singing duties there are himself.
Those unprepared for his husky, gravelly tones might find it initially distracting and at odds with the often exquisitely crafted neo-classical pieces or the pristine rhythms to be found on the club-friendly tracks. Indeed, his Chris Rea-esque rasp lacks much variety, which leaves the likes of I’m Not Driving Anymore, There’s Only Me and Left Me For Dead sounding one-dimensional. The brutal truth is that on these songs, and others such as Speed Me Towards Death and Nothing At All, Dougan never really does the material justice as a result. Only on the rousing, glorious finale One And The Same does the result match its potential.
Nevertheless, the music’s quality ultimately wins through, a 60-minute collage of moody, introspective sounds that, thematically, stray little from a general world-weary defiance and resigned nihilism.
Not exactly a barrel of laughs, then, but should the occasion demand it Furious Angels offers the perfect brooding, yet oddly calming, atmosphere.
Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2002. E-mail Liam Carey
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.