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The Research - Breaking Up

Album Reviews

'Breaking Up' could well be the snowballing success of the year. You should certainly make sure it wears the needle down on your record player.

Sometimes it's just not worth the wait: buses to work, the inevitable ravages of old age, or the hanging around in a dentist's waiting room being soundtracked by the hum of the smell. Forget it, we're not sticking around for that. Some things however, are definitely worth it: waiting for the kettle to boil, the sun to shine, and the prolonged delay surrounding the arrival of one shiny compact disc in particular. Originally recorded last year, scheduled for release in October and then postponed, some feared that the debut album from The Research might never see the light of day - lost down the back of the sofa only to be unearthed during the desperate scramble for money to buy a pint of milk. Thankfully, though, it's now propping up a shelf in your local music emporium.

Delicate opener 'The Way You Used To Smile' sets up the bittersweet melancholy perfectly, recounting all those all too familiar scars of a lost relationship. You can almost hear a thousand hearts pound during 'I Love You, But...', an even more stripped down experiment in paranoia and self-doubt. With its 'twinkle twinkle little star' break, if any song epitomised The Research, this would be it; joyously naive but deceptively downbeat underneath. 'I Bet If We Kissed' is a swooning tale of unrequited love that would soften even the most hardened individuals. Heart-achingly tear inducing and blissfully happy in the turn of a drumbeat.

Brace yourselves with handclaps at the ready for the bounce along a-go-go session of 'I Say "Yeh Yeh"' with its singalong chorus, while 'Lonely Hearts Still Beat The Same' makes drums press and keyboards fizz. Though originally released some two years ago now, 'She's Not Leaving' is still a track you want to carry around in your pocket with its frenzied tale of paranoia overtaking reality, whilst the original B-side to it, the slow turning 'Love Me Tender', possesses what must be one of the finest meetings of wrestling moves and popular music. Macho-Man-a-rific.

Pay close attention and the 'ba ba ba's will crop up in much more than just the track 'Ba Ba Ba' with its off-kilter delivery, less frantic on record in comparison to the oft drunken stage performance, but no less endearing for it. Slow it down for the angelic cooing 'Splitting Hairs' that almost signals the end of The Research's brutally honest offering, then finish on a bang with the poptastic 'The Hard Times'. Walking the fine lines which separate love and hate, your mood will dictate what you hear, but whichever it is it's worth it, by the end of the Summer, 'Breaking Up' could well be the snowballing success of the year. You should certainly make sure it wears the needle down on your record player. Rating: 9/10