Review of Chalk Stars Single by Animal Kingdom

Review of Animal Kingdom's single Chalk Stars.

Animal Kingdom Chalk Stars Single

Animal Kingdom are supporting Snow Patrol on an upcoming arena tour. This makes sense - 'Chalk Stars' is US-college radio-ready indie-pop at its most saccharine. As dewy-eyed Richard Sauberlich sings 'when all you want is a rainbow, all you get is the rain...', he's yearning with the desire to be played over the end of some psuedo-reality show about empty LA lives. You can hear it fading in as Josh tells Amber that he doesn't think he's ready to 'go steady'.

The song is driven by a chord sequence initially stated on piano, and eventually joined by strings, guitar, glockenspiel etc. The second half of the song builds over a couple of minutes to what the band presumably considers to be a rapturous climax, but sounds to me more like a half-arsed Takk-era Sigur Ros; too burdened down by its own sense of self-seriousness to really take off and loose the dreary shackles of indie-pop-rock.

2/10

Matthew Jennings


Site - http://www.myspace.com/weareanimalkingdom

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