The Strokes' 'First Impressions Of Earth', Franz Ferdinand's second effort, 'You Could Have It So Much Better', Blur's 'Leisure'... what's the uniting factor between these otherwise fairly disparate releases? Impressive album sales? Probably. Cross-over influences? Maybe. But more so than that, all three follow the same disheartening formula: although none can exactly be called 'bad' albums, far from it in fact, they all throw the killer singles or standout tracks at you within the first ten minutes. 'You Only Live Once' and 'Juicebox', 'The Fallen' and 'Do You Want To', 'There's No Other Way' and 'She's So High': easily the best songs on their relative albums but given away at the first hurdle. It's obvious why bands choose to take this tactic and i'm not saying its an unwise decision to lure people in, but, honestly, when was the last time you listened to any of those albums all the way through? Exactly. Autons, on the other hand, seem to have thought about this and taken almost the reverse option because, with 'Who Do You Think You Are Kidding?' it's almost halfway through before it all suddenly clicks and you realise what this particular three-piece are actually all about.Until this point, namely track four: 'Runaway Train', Autons run the risk of sounding all a little too clean. Their particularly brand of synth-led electropop is one that always treads a dangerous ground between sharpness and soulless overproduction- you aim for Gary Numan and it turns out more Frankie Goes To Hollywood- and whilst openers 'Politicians' and 'Weekend' make for commercial sounding releases, they lack the slightly dirty, gritty edge needed to set them apart from one of The Feeling's slightly naughtier moments.Luckily though this seems to be a momentary blip and once Autons get past the 'chart friendly singles' section of the album it all starts to get a bit good. 'Runaway Train' is an epic slow burner of a track that lures you into a New Order-esque bubble and then suddenly ropes in a thrashing Muse-like guitar section, while its follower, 'Crystal' is a short burst of jagged, riffy perfection in the vein of Switches, but with a whole load more sass. 'Sleepwalker' too, with its hand claps and growling guitar hook, is a monster of a tune and only goes to further emphasise that Autons are at their best when they don't try and buffer everything up too much. 'Who Do You Think You Are Kidding?' is almost an album of two halves, such is the drastic difference in sound between the first few tracks (and the oddly placed track eight,'Watery Grave') and its followers. The sad thing is you get the idea that the direction they're aiming for lies more in the over-shiny gloss of the first few offerings, when really they seem far more at home when they unwind the screws a little, but who can really tell. For now, stick this on one player and The Strokes on the other and flick halfway through. Perfect.
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