The Temper Trap - Conditions

Whichever way you look at it, The Temper Trap are something of an anomaly. They’re Australians that are not hopelessly struggling over here in the UK and yet aren’t of the sweaty rock’n’roll persuasion. They’re managing to causing quite a stir without being either American folkies or eighties electro-pop revivalists and they’re doing it simply by being really quite good. They’ve a sound that manages to straddle both the worlds of traditional indie rock and a huge arena swallowing soundscape. It’s enough to put some off, doubtlessly, yet ‘Conditions’ (the group’s debut album) is very much not without it’s charms.

The album gets away with its a subdued start, the drums merely providing a beat for the keyboard and vocal to keep to. Still within the first minute they’ve managed to hit a Snow Patrol style crescendo, full of scaling guitars and soaring vocals. Simple, yet perfectly cinematic, said opener (titled ‘Love Lost’) is a great example of The Temper Trap’s music. On the negative side, this record does peak three songs in. The flip side to this is of course that right near the beginning of the record we get the excellent ‘Sweet Disposition’ a song that’s sure to soon be much wider known, being due to feature in upcoming film ‘(500) Days of Summer’. It’s everything that you’d expect from something that’s soundtracking the latest Zooey Deschenel starring quirky rom-com. The frantic drumming heightens the emotional impact and like said star, it’s doe eyed and gorgeous.

Other tracks worth mentioning are ‘Science Of Fear’ with it’s glitchy rhythm that threatens to go Pendulum on us for a few brief seconds, yet stays decent whilst keeping the tension and ‘Fader’ which has enough ‘ooohhhs’ to give The Cloud Room a run for their money. ‘Fools’ is also really good, but we can’t just go on listing songs that you might enjoy now, can we? So, to criticise; the falsetto is a Morrissey/Chris Martin hybrid and is therefore bound to grate on many and likewise the bands brand of soaring indie rock isn’t really for the ‘cool kids’. Yet these factors and that the albums drags a little towards the end of the second third do not stop ‘Conditions’ from being a really enjoyable listen.