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Athlete
VEHICLES & ANIMALS
(Astralwerks)
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If Coldplay are a warmer, fuzzier Radiohead, then Athlete take the next step toward pop accessibility — and it’s a step down. The Mercury Award–nominated British quartet deliver reliably infectious Britpop with a few left-field quirks in the form of electronic bleeps and twitterings dispersed throughout these loping, amiable songs. The result is a collection of pub sing-alongs rewired with a bit of electronica — 13 serviceably catchy tunes that would make a fine backdrop for drinking beers on a beach. There’s substance here: the ballad "Shake Them Windows" may be the first earnest rock ode to hip-hop, as in "beats and rhymes and . . . old-school heads nodding back in time." And "You Got the Style" deals with the 2001 race riots in the band’s rough South London ’hood by appropriating the chorus from Nelly’s "Hot in Herre." Unfortunately, Athlete are too willing to force their songs toward the kind of found-sound electronica that’s about a year shy of innovative. Without those bells and whistles, Vehicles & Animals would have enough in the way of well-crafted melodies to bring to mind Oasis at their most anthemic. But this is a band who haven’t quite found a comfortable spot in which to plant the hooks that seem to come so naturally to them.
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