Album Review: Lostprophets - 'Weapons'

27 April 2012 | 12:44 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Slowly getting back to the good old days.

More Lostprophets More Lostprophets

Lostprophets have made things pretty hard for their fans. They started with the raw an edgy debut 'The Fake Sound Of Progress' twelve years ago which hooked people in and got them interested, then they smacked everyone out of the park with 2004's brilliant 'Start Something.' Then came the divide as the band followed a more mainstream pop influenced route on 2006's 'Liberation Transmission,' which split fans down the middle. With their last record, 2010' 'The Betrayed,' the group tried to regain some of their credibility in the harder scenes but wound up with what was pretty much a write off.

So here we are with the fifth record 'Weapons,' hot on the heels of the group's recent Soundwave appearances which, for those in attendance, would have re-ignited the spark of love for the band. With 'Weapons' Lostprophets head back to their 'Liberation Transmission' sound but with a refined approach, melding in elements of the band that people love with some very well written hooks.

This makes it seem like they learnt their lesson from the third record, and have improved on the design this time around. For those of us who didn’t think ‘Liberation Transmission’ was that bad, although noted the massive change in sound, this record will be thoroughly enjoyable.

The album opens with an energetic, shamelessly catchy, big riff driven track called Bring Em Down, the first single and one of the highlights. The Prophets have been around long enough to know what will get the crowds going and this pumping sing-a-long is perfect for that. The next stand-out follows directly after with We Bring An Arsenal, which almost includes some lame moments but the catchy gang vocals and channelling of the band’s earlier days make it too hard to resist.

The album plateaus at its centre with a couple of songs that lyrically are fairly predictable, showing hometown pride and standing up to fight sort of things, these are still set to extremely catchy melodies and good but not great rock riffs. Things perk up with a different swing in Heart On Loan, a song that culminates the electronic/synth vibes that are fairly present throughout the whole record.

The end brings a skip worthy ballad titled Somedays and an uneventful closer reminiscent of the mid-section, Can’t Get Enough. The bright summer anthem seems to be the flavour favoured by a majority of the songs which gives the record the fun edge that the last album was missing.

‘Weapons’ is still nowhere near what the band produced in their heyday however it seems as though they have included their mainstream pop attempts in a more respectable way. You can’t deny that Lostprophets are capable of some great hooks and it would be near impossible for fans of the band to not find a few things in here they will like.

1. Bring ‘Em Down
2. We Bring an Arsenal
3. Another Shot
4. Jesus Walks
5. A Song for Where I’m From
6. A Little Reminder That I’ll Never Forget
7. Better Off Dead
8. Heart on Loan
9. Somedays
10 Can’t Get Enough