Russell HughesTigercub – Evolve or Die (Alcopop! Records)
Genre: Alt. Rock
There is a scene in The Lonely Island’s film Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping that helps to explain how successful artists can ruin albums by trying too hard.
In an attempt to achieve an unrealistic perfection, popstar Connor4real enlists the help of over 60 producers to make 13 tracks on his second album. Whether the creators intended it to be a prophetic warning is doubtful, but Evolve or Die has taken this path.
With a four song EP based on a short story called The Library of Babel, the four song record attempts to tackle questions on human autonomy that PHD students have been trying and failing to answer for decades.
Within the record there are certainly praiseworthy aims and Tigercub have tried to avoid making rock music that sounds like a rehashed version of everything that’s already out there – and to achieve this complex aim lead vocalist and guitarist Jamie Hall had 60 songs written.
But at some point you have to cut the shit and actually get some songs down and the result is a curious mix of Klaxons style electro-bopping on The Divided States of Us to a more retrospective, inward and slowed down take on the world on Into The Ashes and It’s Only Love.
The three-piece’s mantra for the whole recording process was evolve or die, and on Faking Laughter they conclude the EP with a rumbling-away-in-the-background, beers-in-the-sunshine track that’s got summer vibe written all over it.
As Connor4real’s album comes out, he’s met with a host of bad reviews topped off by Rolling Stone using the poo emoji instead of a rating. While Tigercub might have gone to parody lengths to write their second release, they thankfully avoided the pitfalls.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 7/10 Tigercub evolved