Client - Heartland

have always been one of those bands that are stocked in the local independent record store under ‘bands that aren’t as good as Ladytron and come nowhere near to touching the greatness that is Lali Puna’. Well, they’re not. But they should be.

On ‘Heartland’ they’ve tried to go a bit emotional with their electronica to mark themselves out from the crowd. And to some extent, a stab at ‘emotronica’ works. When they tone things down on the title track, with gentle piano keys under the buzzing synth, it’s more successful than the attempted understated sex appeal of ‘It’s Not Over’ at least. They just miss the mark on ‘Zerox Machine’ as well. What could have been a blasting pop anthem is blighted not only by a rubbish title, but also a disregard for the verse. While the chorus sprints off in a cloud of its own woo, the middle bits merely bloop and stall.

‘Koln’ is a goodie, however. A menacing drone provides the background to the vocal-less track that’s merely meant to be interlude filler. Yet, as a bit of the dark electronic stuff, it’s a bit of a killer.

Ladytron, you can breathe easy for now. A work of peaks (‘Heartland’) and troughs (‘Monkey On My Back’), Client aren’t sounding as if they are going to climb out of the comparisons bin any time soon.