(12-track album/ 2002/ 'LONDON RECORDS')
Wah-A! A is for animated, and A are fecking awesome. I've seen them twice and their shows are energetic affairs, and they have to be with songs this zestful and dynamic. Their sometimes lazily crap lyrics tossed off ('Going Down' is a case in point� 'I'm in the shit, knee deep in it, I know that this might hurt a bit'), A are all about alliteration and anthems and they don't come much shinier than 'Nothing' and their finest song of all in 'Starbucks' - which broke this band into the mainstream big-time. But no, they haven't sold out and retort to any possible accusation that they have in the liner notes to the cool 'The Distance' where they say in their defense 'Where does it say that keeping it punk means that you can't be successful or that you shouldn't have aspirations?' Eh, eh! Right on, into the title track 'Hi-Fi Serious' - which is another song about their band - that closes this album on a natural high.
This is pop-rock music at its most addictive and Feeder have to be mentioned as a reference point, when in every guitar hook and vocal harmony is the presence of an all-encompassing and joyously epic sound of a band who love what they are doing to bits. They may daydream about California too much, but when choruses like the one in 'Pacific Ocean Blue' are as rousing as they are, there's no wonder A are finally a household name band in those household's receptive to the good music and fun times that this band promote with contagious abandon. (STEVE RUDD)
www.a-communication.com
www.hifi-serious.com