'Super-groups' are more often than not anything but. With a few notable exceptions (the recent 'Monsters of Folk' album for example) these projects are generally a vain outlet for musicians who feel 'trapped' and 'creatively frustrated' by their day jobs. Of course Scots 8 piece 'The Burns Unit' have an ace up their sleeve in that none of the members are currently tied to another group so The Burns Unit could quite feasibly become a 'proper' group should they wish it so (similar to what happened with 'Audioslave' only hopefully with better songs). The band supposedly convened at a song-writing retreat in rural Scotland where local folk stars Karine Polwart and Kenny Anderson began collaborating with the former Delgados singer Emma Pollock, rapper MC Soom T, bassist Future Pilot AKA, multi-instrumentalist instrumentalist Kim Edgar, drummer Mattie Foulds and pianist Michael Johnston. The songs were all written collaboratively which makes for an interesting listen but also a frequently frustrating one.
The biggest problem with Side Show is that it doesn't really sound like the work of a 'band'. It comes across more like a compilation album, a pretty great compilation album maybe but still the niggling suspicion remains that in some cases the idea wins out over the song. In just the first 3 tracks for example we get a folksy romantic lamentation complimented by an intimate accordion backed duet, a quirky electronic pop song and a bizarre collision between Shakira and Gogol Bordello. And this is before the grunge flecked rocker ('Blood, Ice and Ashes') and the reggae-rap hybrid ('What Is Life?') even get a look in. This kind of eclecticism is a risk that doesn't always pay off but it at least couldn't be argued that The Burns Unit are ever playing it safe and there are some great songs here.
Emma Pollock has always had one of the most emotive voices in UK indie-rock and on the subtle 'Trouble' she resurrects the ghost of her old band's early years on a subtle electronic indie rocker with a melody so infectious it should be illegal. On 'You Need Me To Need This' meanwhile she delivers a mournful performance Rufus Wainwright would be proud of over a sparse piano ballad which morphs effortlessly into a menacing, Tom Waits indebted knees-up. The supporting players shouldn't be overlooked either, the two songs helmed by the virtuoso MC Soom T initially come across as quite a shock to the system buried amidst the ponderous indie rock. Her vibrant, heavily accented tones and dense, political wordplay might not fit with the records heavy hearted aesthetic but individually they are as exciting as anything off MIA's last album. In fact there's only one real let-down here, the closing 'Helpless to Turn' which has the over-inflated ballast of an American AOR ballad (think Sarah McLachlan) and feels like a rather muted parting shot.
Unlike similarly accomplished indie-supergroup 'The Reindeer Section' (who had Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody as a guiding light) what The Burns Unit lack is a cohesive direction and one suspects if someone actually took charge and led the group rather than just letting the songs fall as they may this might not have been the case. Tellingly the strongest songs in the collective are the songs in which King Creosote and Emma Pollock take control. If the band wish to really push on they might need to rethink a few things, but overall this is a promising start and proof that 'super-groups' can sometimes be just that.
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