Spring Offensive - The First of Many Dreams About Monsters

  by Fiona Hutchings

published: 29 / 8 / 2010

Label: Spring Offensive
Format: CDS

intro

Multi-faceted and brave fourteen minute free download single from Oxford-based band Spring Offensive about the five stages of grief

It takes some balls to do a concept album on purpose these days. You might not be dismissed as pretentious if you happen to make one by accident, but to go out and declare you intend to condense Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief (denial, bargaining, anger, depression and acceptance) into not an album but a fourteen minute 'mega single'? That is going to go one of two ways. More than likely the band will explode in a fireball of flayed egos, stinging reviews and recrimination. Then there is the possiblity that a concept fully formed will rise arrogant in the face of the anticipated criticism. I pronounced in a recent review that what Spring Offensive did next would be worth listening too and it is nice to be proved right. I love this concept. Grief is personally universal - private, accessible and mailable. I suspect anyone listening to this will hear and experience something different. At times, for me, it invokes 'Attack of the Grey Lanterns' by Mansun and later Radiohead's 'Kid A'. Different parts seem to resonate each time I listen to it and it is hard to pull out individual sections without the ease of track titles. Singer Lucas Whitfield has more assured lyrical delivery. The band's idea that each stage of grief would have its own rhythm and sound and yet still be tied together coherently is born out. In a personal note accompanying the single the band explain the choice not to lay out word for word what the song is about, comparing it to "turning up to a dinner party only to announce you have a bomb strapped to your leg." You don't need to see the images they have constructed because you are too busy making your own. The end result is a multi faceted song which feels brave, bold and humble too.

Track Listing:-