Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood Of Colour

You only have to Google the phrase ‘best albums of 2011’ to comprehend that politics in music has marched onto the raised eyebrows of the public - complete with luminous whistles chants and placards tattooed with black marker. Oh sure, if your search strays to a website cemented in stars and stripes, you’ve got a sore throated Adele taking the top spot, soaking in a bath of copyright agreement money from the makers of Glee. But more often than not, PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album ‘Let England Shake’ has topped critics’ lists.

Saying that, there are cases by which the formula (music (+) politics (x) ego’s and ill education on the subject) can equal one hell of a cringe-worthy cock up. Some pop stars develop such gargantuan egos they genuinely believe that they’re automatically capable of ruling a country. Wh-what’s that, Wyclef? You can’t run for the president / prime minister / governor / government man of Haiti? Oh… shame. You would have been a great one of those.

Original DIYers, Enter Shikari have been known to dabble in this disastrous equation from time to time. Gorging on a stale, microwaved buffet of genres since 2007, the punkrockdubstephardcoremetalambienttechnonoisecore foursome return with their third studio album, ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’. Admittedly, Enter Shikari are a guilty pleasure of mine. Just like Frankie Cocozza has an affinity for Cocaine, not going to the hairdressers and… for being a general cock. But unlike the (debatable) likability of the band’s debut ‘Take To The Skies’, their new release embodies plastic politics motioned by too much complication, too much eccentricity and too much mindless drivel.

If you’re looking for Shikari nostalgia, tracks like ‘Sssnakepit’ and ‘Search Party’ provide a flash flood of hope with the hardcore combustion balancing well enough to withstand up lifting choruses. Rou Reynolds’ all too occasional, political bout of verbal diarrhoea at the beginning, in-between and at the end of songs is off-putting, but won’t make you run for the hills. At first. ‘Stalemale’ is as close as the band will get to an air grabbing, key changing ballad and tactically prepares the listener for the violently extravagant ear bashing of ‘Gandhi Mate, Gandhi’.

All in all, ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’ is well produced and executed with precision. However, this is by no means third time lucky for Enter Shikari. The positives are overshadowed by petulant observations to politics which is hard to take seriously when dire lyrics like ‘Yabba dabba do one, Son’ depict wordplay found in playgrounds. Let’s hope and pray that the band don’t head into the House of Commons anytime soon.