Score: 9/10
Phil Goss, As If…’s enigmatic lead singer and guitarist recently described the band’s sound as “a cross between the Chemical Brothers and Pink Floyd” which is a fair stab at pidgeonholing a techno-tinged pop rock sound that remains determinedly illusive. Take for instance the moodily dark ballad “Winter” with it’s eastern sounding guitar and its chilling line “welcome to the pain I feel inside”, or the old style rocker “All Fall Down” complete with honking sax from Ben Castle, or the opener “Love IS” with a Euro dance beat.
It’s the lyrics though which are most intriguing. Beside each track, CD browsers are guided to a website so those inclined can absorb more info on the subject being sung about. Certainly, though, the websites picked on for musical celebration are intriguingly mixed. Pride of place is the song about the 19th Century church minister interested in the paranormal who subsequently disappeared and was possibly murdered for translating the Bible into Celtic, with the villagers putting round the story that he was captured by the fairies. Only a band as defiantly left-of-centre as As If… would endeavour to pen a song about that!