Review Summary: Probably the best dull-wave record of 2012.
I doubt there’s little point in me tapping my keys on a Thursday evening, loaded up on Pepsi and with a head full of (hopefully) efficient adjectives, just to amount to a short review for an easy to miss debut LP by some artist you’ve never heard of called Diagrams. Yet here I am, and here are my words. It’s rather hard to get them onto screen, you see, even with caffeine streaming through my bloodstream as I type because I’m consistently dogged by a nagging sensation to… fall… asleep.
I wasn’t tired before I began writing, but as the mellow tones of Sam Genders flitter out amidst one of the least compelling indie pop soundscapes heard in a while, one can’t refrain from the life-sapping yawn of pending slumber. Perhaps i’m being harsh, but to put it simply:
Black Light is boring. ‘Boring’ is a horrendously lazy term to use, even for an amateur journo like myself, but when the word 'boring' is the overriding feeling gathered from listening to this debut LP, one can't argue... mainly because one has fallen asleep.
The sound is just devoid of hooks; the vocals murmured without passion and the major sense gained from the 9 tracks: meh. The guitars never lift off ground, the rhythm section is barely recognisable, and even the inclusion of sprightly synth zaps here and there fail to grab attention. If Sam Genders wanted to make one of 2012's most anonymous and so-so records, he certainly gets my vote in that category.
To refrain from slagging
Black Light off for just a moment, one could try and see a bright side to this dull-wave sound. Not every record has to be catchy or lively, and as a mellow, chill-out type album, Diagrams’ debut doesn’t do a bad job in terms of sticking to its guns. But trying to believe
Black Light would interest an insomniac other than as a method of sleep-inducement is wishful thinking, and ultimately characterises the album in the most concise and efficient way.
Black Light is just a plain old record, and unfortunately falls just on the wrong side of average due to its seeming mission to send its listeners to slumber-land. I, for one, am off to bed.
