The Wow Signal - Infinity’s Lobby

From the first neatly executed drum roll to the chorus of perfectly chiming guitars and general super-slick production, it’s clear the Wow Signal mean serious stadium-filling rock business. It’s hard to imagine them being content with playing to Ver Kids at their local spit-and-sawdust indie venue; instead, they obviously see themselves swaggering onto the stage in enormo-arenas across the globe, wearing shades at midnight with champagne on tap wherever they go. Singer Andrew Mangold seems to have more in common with such stadium superstompers as Bono and the late Michael Hutchence than any other current frontmen, with his studied, disinterested delivery at the forefront, as if making too much effort while singing would be deemed horrendously uncool.

The guitar solo in ‘Debunked’ (perfectly placed in the centre of the track, of course) is like something Noel Gallagher might have rejected as too muso around the time of ‘Be Here Now’, chugging along as it does in predictable style seemingly into, well, infinity. Things perk up on ‘Silbury Street’ which at least mixes up the rhythms in a pleasingly jerky, unsettling fashion, while ‘Picture Of You’ nods to mid-70s Bowie with its prowling bassline and crystal cut vocals. They save the best to last with ‘The Little Things In Life’ with its intensely paranoid atmosphere and full on rock out sceaming guitar solo.

All told, ‘Infinity’s Lobby’ is certainly a very polished, meticulously produced album which is sure to please a massive heap of rock fans the world over. If, however, you like your records produced with a little more grit and spit, this probably won’t ever be one of your Desert Island Discs.