The Mindsweep is the genre defying Enter Shikari’s 4th album and definitely their most expansive and accomplished. The St Albans quartet here showcase an eclectic mix of more intimate and stirring pieces, which surfaced on their previous album, and the rage and pounding beats and riffs that are characteristic of their music. Here they take this mix one step further and whilst this is largely an achievement in many places it can also be the albums main drawback. Equally characteristic of the band are the themes present in frontman Rou’s lyrics, for this is no less an album with a clear focus on political and social struggle and change.
Similarities in style to the last album A Flash Flood of Colour are clear in the starting track ‘The Appeal & The Mindsweep I’; a prologue of spoken word delivering a rallying cry to the masses which descends into an opener containing electronic beats, pounding riffs and screams. This album is different however and the band has developed, adding to this formula an almost ethereal and more epic tone. This comes up throughout the album and creates some of its best songs but can seem a little out of place at times particularly when a song is essentially a commentary on privatisation of the NHS.
This track, ‘Anaesthetist’ is the most similar to the previous album, with elements of their brand of ‘electronicore’ and rapped vocals. This and ‘Never Let Go of the Microscope’ both pack a welcome punch despite their serious messages. Sandwiched between the two the tone switches again in ‘The Last Garrison’, the first single from the album, which continues the revolutionary theme set out in the first track.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUAgotnkrL4]
Where the eclectic nature of this album is not so welcome is within some individual tracks. Tracks that are otherwise highlights of the album, such as the ‘The One True Colour’, ‘Myopia’ and ‘Torn Apart’ contain transitions of style that are typical of Shikari but here seem out of place and disjointed. Whether it’s Rou’s soft, poignant vocals switching to the heavy riff based chorus of ‘Myopia’, that makes it such a delight; or fast paced drum and bass suddenly ascending into powerful and emotional singing in ‘Torn Apart’, it can be a little irritating. In many ways it is very easy to overlook this however because powerful, these songs still are.
The final tracks include ‘Dear Future Historians’, an intimate piano accompanied ballad that bursts into a mighty guitar anthem with the repeated singing and backing chorus of “put your weight on my shoulders”. This is where the album is at its most un-Rock and Roll and triumphantly so as it roars into the finale, ‘The Appeal and The Mindsweep II’ an ending that reflects the mix of the entire album with a well-produced mash up of styles and lyrics not only from this album but also harking back to their older material too.
The Mindsweep isn’t a Rock and Roll album but that is clearly not the intention. Its fans will take from it what they want and there is plenty on offer.
Words by Tim Goodfellow