The View - Bread and Circuses

To a good chunk people, The View might mean nothing more than the overplayed ‘Same Jeans’ a few years back. To the faithful though, those two words can mean a lot more, and Bread and Circuses’ early chart performance seems to show that Dundee’s finest aren’t quite the washed up has-beens that some may have written them off as. There’s plenty of familiarity in this record for fans to associate with, but following the trend of 2009’s Which Bitch?, they’ve continued to diversify their sound and steadfastly refused to stagnate. The energy is still there, but the whole album isn’t quite as frantic as past efforts, and the sleeve notes’ lead guitar credit now actually seems to mean something other than “second guitarist who we thought we’d better big up ‘cos he doesn’t sing too”.

Bouncy opener ‘Grace’ kicks in with the throttle pressed firmly to the floor with their signature clashing guitars and urgent riffing, all brought alive by Kyle Falconer’s frankly adorable vocal twang. ‘Underneath the Lights’ and ‘Tragic Magic’ continue in a similar vein, before being interrupted by the skittish ditty of ‘Girl’, and the decidedly unexpected power ballad, gut-punching guitar solo and all, ‘Life’.

The second half of the album rollicks on in similar form, with highlights including boisterously upbeat ‘Sunday’ and the emotive final track ‘Best Lasts Forever’. Guitarist Pete Reilly also shines again in unexpected ways, lending a wailing, Gary Moore-esque intro to a track by the name of ‘Beautiful’.

Like their past two albums, Bread and Circuses is once again lyrically fairly strong from The View. That said, one song, featuring the words “bye bye Bible, bye bye faith, I’m gonna have a pagan morning, I’m gonna have a pagan day”, does sound a bit too Spinal Tap for my liking; a few years of success since moving out of a Dundee council estate may be beginning to take its toll on Falconer’s typically sharp and street-savvy poeticism.

The View certainly aren’t going to lose any fans with record number three. Some of the album tracks in fact seem to have potential to win a few more over, with the band feeling a little more adventurous. Current singles ‘Sunday’ and ‘Grace’, however, are largely as-you-were type offerings; sounding great to existing followers, but unlikely to convince former doubters to part with any brass on their behalf in the record store.

★★★★☆

Like This? Try The Airborne Toxic Event, The Airborne Toxic Event; The Smashing Pumpkins, Teargarden by Kaleidoscope; The Kooks, Konk.

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