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Album Review: The Whip – Wired Together

The 2011 festival season may be behind us, but that doesn’t mean the dancing should stop. The Whip, with their second album ‘Wired Together’, looks primed to be at the forefront of dance party shenanigans this autumn. Some of the songs have already been examined in my In the Post in June (read it here) so I’ll only be touching on songs not previously written about in this album review.

The album begins with ‘Keep or Delete’, a song rather apropros for the current digital generation and a good way to start the party. (You can get this song for free in this earlier MP3 of the Day post.) ‘Shake’ is the kind of song most dance music artists wish they could write; it sounds like a neverending explosion of sound and colours, arms waving the entire time. Unlike ‘Secret Weapon’ and ‘Movement’, which were good but less in-your-face affairs, you cannot escape ‘Shake’. “The only thing left to do is shake” – yes, please! For that reason, I think it’s the best track on the whole album. This track alone makes it better than Tom Vek’s ‘Leisure Seizure’ (my review here). That’s saying quite a lot.

‘Metal Law’, while lesser than ‘Shake’, is a worthy follower. ‘Best Friend’ will make your heart race, with a robotic Gary Numan-esque vocal, a carefully-placed minor chord progression in the chorus and relentless beats. ‘Intensity’, just like the name sounds, is a musical jackhammer, trying to beat itself into your brain. The first couple listens, it’s rather annoying. I think with headphones it’s probably made doubly annoying (especially since I usually turn the bass up) and when you’re in the club, this is a non-issue, so I’ll let this one slide. Altogether though, this is one fine set of tunes that you should be cranking up and dancing to. Not that you should have ever doubted the Whip. You see, this is how Manchester makes dance music look effortless.

9/10

‘Wired Together’, the sophomore effort from the Whip, is available now from Southern Fried Records. Stream all the songs below and if you like them, buy them.