polaroids of androids

Albums that are aimed at mass commercial appeal can be spotted a mile away. They follow a set formula of being over polished, predictable and, although they might feature an epic closing number, they stay perfectly between the lines. In The Midst Of This is musically brilliant, it all comes together exactly as it should for Expatriate's style of music, but it's impossible to ignore the fact that they are attempting to make the leap from fantastic indie outfit to the pop charts. The result is, for lack of a better word at hand, DULL.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad album, it's just incredibly straight forward, predictably and tiresome. There are obvious lines to be drawn between their style and about a billion trendy bands of the past few years, who have clear lines between their work and the founding fathers of this danceable rock sound. Every song, besides the standard epic 'closer' clock in somewhere around the three or four minute mark. There is the token ballad, You Were There, as well as the slight reworkings of the songs that got them to where they are (The Spaces Between, Get In, Give In) which stand out as highlights on the release, even though they still sound like they have been dulled down as well.

On the positive spin, Expatriate have done something that has been done a million times before, and it works. It will surely bring them the success at home and overseas that they deserve from their years of effort as it's a well proven formula, and the vast majority will see them for the first time and be blown away. But for those that have seen them grow as a live act and an entertaining group, they now appear as a band with a definite swagger as if they have something really important to offer, but end up only fooling themselves and disappointing their original audience. My only hope is that they use the money they make (or their record company makes) off this record to make their follow-up something of substance and quality, because I have seen that they are a talented group, it's just not on display in any form the first time around.