Blackmarket - The Elephant in the Room

  by Kelly Smith

published: 11 / 12 / 2008

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Review

Blackmarket are a tricky little band. You’re listening to a song, and everything’s going well, and you’re not feeling particularly moved to write epic novels about them, and then all of a sudden, about halfway through, you realise that your head is going “Who the hell is this band? They are amazing!” 'The Elephant In The Room' is the debut release from newbie US rock band Blackmarket, and in short, it’s whatever word is used to describe something that’s only a tiny fraction away from "really frigging great". If it wasn’t for a couple of select tracks, this could be one of those encompasses-all debuts that strikes a chord with everyone who listens to it. (Incidentally, those tracks are ‘Sooner or Later’ and ‘Sheila’ – avoid these if you want an untarnished view of Blackmarket). Although they state that their influences include the Beatles and David Bowie, it’s difficult to see specific examples of these artists in 'The Elephant In The Room'. There are plenty of other influences apparent though – some tracks verge on Muse, there’s some American 90s rock influence such as Green Day or Weezer, and some even have more atmospheric Radiohead-type interludes which will sound amazing live. Frontman Daryl Lamont is blessed with the kind of voice that will always sound youthful and that helps inject a current vibe into a lot of tracks which would have sounded a bit too flat. Album highlights include ‘Night In Question’, a combination of brilliant screechy melody and fantastic vocal, ‘An Alibi Can’t Give Me A Place To Go’, a riff-lead number that although might not get you dancing when you were out, you know it’ll be in your head for weeks whenever you hear it, and ‘Remote [Control Freak]’ which has definitely been influenced by some early 90s indie-dance crossover, but weirdly has an almost big band build up towards the chorus. There may not be a great amount of difference between a lot of these songs, and I paid almost no attention to the lyrics which is uncharacteristically emotionally removed for me, but I really like the catchy sounds emanating from my speakers when Blackmarket are around. If you don’t then you don’t, but they’ve created a sparky debut which can surely only improve with the wisdom of having released a record. Indie-punk is probably the closest you’d come to putting a label on it, if that’s what you like to do. And I do, because it helps when you’re tidying things up.

Track Listing:-

1 Magic Tricks
2 Night In Question
3 Sheila
4 Sooner Or Later
5 An Alibi Can't Give Me
6 A Place To Go
7 Remote (Control Freak)
8 Bad Call
9 Permanent You
10 Drag Addict
11 Ctrl Alt Del
12 Out Of Order