Fightstar: The English Way (CDS on Search and Destroy)

Band: Fightstar
Label: Search and Destroy
Title: The English Way

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Band:Fightstar
Title:The English Way
Reviewed By:Kelly Smith
Date Published:09/11/2008

Label:Search and Destroy
Format:CDS
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Do you ever get the feeling some weeks that you’ve done nothing but write about Fightstar? No? Just me then. It’s okay, I thought that’s quite a specific group to start. If you ever do find yourself having to suddenly devote a lot of your time to writing about Fightstar though, I can think of no better beginning than 'The English Way', their new single from a forthcoming album due out next year.

It’s the most mainstream song they’ve ever done, highlighted further by the fact that Radio 1 have picked them for the playlist for the first time. 'The English Way' is a perfect demonstration that mainstream doesn’t ever have to be a bad thing though. This is immediately in my top Fightstar songs category, and I might get struck down for this, but I think it’s one of the best singles they’ve released. Charlie Simpson's voice is, as ever, amazing. It’s unmistakably Charlie, and nowadays that equates to unmistakably Fightstar. When just a few years ago that would have been unmistakably Busted, it’s great to see Fightstar have become a force in their own right – they’ve now been together as long, if not longer, than Busted were ever releasing singles for.

The music is powerful in all Fightstar songs, with each band member bringing their own flavour to the forefront of the track. It’s a credit to them that they each know when to sit back and let someone else take the limelight, but when they reach the crashing chorus it sounds seriously brilliant.

Fightstar’s strength lies in their ability to be alternative and yet not shut out any genres from their repertoire. 'The English Way' features a choir which is an inspired interjection to wind the song down, before Charlie, Dan Haigh on bass, Alex Westaway on guitar and Omar Abidi on drums each throw their weight behind a climax which leans towards hardcore before cutting off dead. If anything, I’d have liked them to explore a more hardcore side to the song, but the new album is guaranteed to hold some gems like that.

So, what have we learned today ? 1. Fightstar are brilliant. 2. Microsoft Word doesn’t recognise Fightstar as a word, despite me typing it about two thousand times in the last seven days. 3. 'The English Way' is the single to make you a Fightstar fan is you weren’t already a Fightstar fan. 4. If you weren’t already a Fightstar fan, what’s wrong with you? Now is the time – get involved, before they go global and everyone else got there first.

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Highly impressive new single involving a choir from Fightstar, the first from an as-yet-untitled new album which is due out next year

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The English Way - CDS
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