A Lonely Crowd are a progressive experimental four-piece from Australia, formed in 2008 by the brothers Luke and Scott Ancell. In the years to follow the brothers created a weird musical blend influenced by King Crimson, Mr. Bungle, The Dillinger Escape Plan and the great Frank Zappa. They're fronted by two female vocalists: one half of the album by former singer Leah Ceff and the other half by current singer Xen Po. The band create a strange mixture of punk, progressive rock, folk, metal, and many other conflicting, but cohesive genres to record their debut User Hostile. And what a fine debut this is! User Hostile is one of the most diverse albums I've ever heard. The varied vocals are one reason, but the diversity is mainly due to the fact that they inject a stunning variety of influences and musical styles. Despite this great variety the running time of User Hostile is too long in my opinion. There's so much music packed into this already fairly long album of approximately one hour that I couldn't sit it out in one listen. This album wears you out and drags you down. You either love it or you hate it; there's no compromise... So I better give you my personal best three songs in order to convince and persuade you all. Just listen to Make You Scream, Few And Far Between and Skyscrapers and submerge into the music of A Lonely Crowd. But I warn you, there's no way back... **** Gert Bruins (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
