Athlete, 'Vehicles & Animals'

You can criticize A&R men all you like but you can’t deny their ability to instinctively know what the public wants. So it should come as no surprise to learn that the man who discovered Coldplay plucked Athlete from a similar obscurity.

And certain cynics have tried their best to send the South London foursome back to anonymity by criticizing their debut album ‘Vehicles & Animals’ for being lightweight and insubstantial. But many points were missed along the way. Far from being the aforementioned, this record resonates with uplifting, soaring anthems and rewards the listener with repeated plays. Opening track ‘El Salvador’ sets the agenda, namely, that Joel Potts’s quirky and – naysayers be damned! – pleasant vocals will have your toes tapping and head bobbing along quicker than a sprinter leaving his blocks (Athlete, geddit?).

Indeed, this record is keen to not just deliver on the radio friendly singles front – and ‘Westside’ and ‘Beautiful’ tick plenty of demographic boxes – but address serious issues such as the recent British race riots on standout track ‘You’ve Got The Style’. By blending such a tricky topic with a verse-chorus-verse structure instantly appealing to playlist schedulers, Athlete’s achievement shouldn’t be underplayed. What’s more, palpable traces of Beck, Super Furry Animals and Pavement can be detected throughout the record, a healthy pointer to the future that might have been originally lost on the A&R man but is sure to pay dividends with subsequent releases.