I won’t lie to you. Adequate Seven are [were] my favourite UK band by an absolute mile, there’s no doubt in my mind that what this band are doing for the UK scene is needed and something they can look back on in the future and be proud they were a part in everything that is changing/happening. Their debut album was, in short, a bloody masterpiece. At that time, I wasn’t reviewing CD’s, though I wish I were. So when I got the chance to review this CD, I practically bit Andy’s arm off. I was expecting to be stunned; amazed; to be left god smacked and wanting more. Well, I was left gob smacked, but the former, I’m not so sure.

I’d been regularly checking the Ad7 myspace and receiving the newsletter in case they put any new tracks up, which they did. ‘Splitting Up’ was the first track I heard and immediately I noticed the funkier feel to it. I saw them live the following week where they treated us to it live, and it was brilliant, I hadn’t seen a crowd go mad like this in so long. Whatever they were doing, they were doing it right [little did I know the possible hidden meaning to the track itself]. Then came ‘Head Up High’ which, don’t get me wrong, I did like it, I just didn’t think it was anything special, for me it had been oversimplified.

The first thing you notice if you listen to the new album and go back to the old one is the production in the new one is much cleaner and smoother – whether that works as well can be argued either way, though for me, that was one of things I loved about the first CD, the raw gritty feel, although having said that, ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’ offers a slightly over produced raw experience, and after more listens has really grown on me. But that really sums up the whole album – the more listens, the more it grows on you, which makes it feel like a distant relative of the band that released ‘Song Of Innocence And Of Experience’.

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