First impressions usually count for a lot, and if you’re not careful, you could simply regard A.Human as yet another pretentious arty band trying too hard to be different. Its not quite so simple to categorise bands like A.Human, and to label them with a genre is an impossible task. Fortunately for them they have quite an unusual style.
Hailing from London and the South-East of England, A.Human are a self proclaimed electronica/rock/alternative band-you know when you use that many terms that your style is not concrete and this can work to a bands advantage.
“I Discovered Beauty” is a peculiar song. It begins with unusual harmonies and a raw melancholy acoustic riff. The verse opens up somewhat to a more flexible sound which revolves around the repetitive, quite annoying backing vocals. Lyrically the song is intriguing, a tale seems to being told rather than just spouting arty-farty nonsense which the “average human” repetition seems to imply at the beginning of the track. The song slows almost to a whisper, then the guitar suddenly bursts out in double speed giving the song a more dynamic sound. This spices the track up just in time before the monotone backing vocals force the listener to turn the racket off.
A.Human have so much potential for a massive breakthrough to the popular alternative scene, they have something about them, a certain feel that just qualifies them as a capable, individual band. One issue with “I Discovered Beauty” is that the song doesn’t have much more of a purpose than its meaningless message. The average human lyric is repeated endlessly, almost miming the voice of a robot (perhaps what an average human can be compared to in terms of sentiment). I cant help but feel unsatisfied when the song finished, it was like the song was teetering on the edge of something great, something interesting or distinctive, but it was just too repetitive.
The band clearly have something. They have a style, a sound, good song writing ability, but it is just the finished article they lack. With a little more thought into the composition of their songs this band could be big, very big. Advice certainly wouldn’t be don’t give up your day job, perhaps give up your day job, spend a little more time on writing new tracks, and this band is bound to breakthrough.
A.Human are currently writing new songs and have only two gigs in April.
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