It’s weird how it feels like a lifetime ago and only yesterday that we saw Declan sitting on the news, talking about his hit song about FIFA. Now the artist has grown (more than physically) to be a young songwriter that rightly should have a lot of attention. We were all wondering what Declan was going to do next? Some dubbing him as the voice of his generation…would that continue? Well for his second album, we find him wanting to make his generation jive with sparkly, space infused tunes!
Obviously Bowie is to be heard and an easy comparison but there is classic 70’s songwriting nods throughout the record. Zero seems to be the Youth Club associated with Arctic Monkey’s Tranquility Base and more fun when comparing to Harry Style’s attempt on his debut record.
My favourite song on the album starts the LP off like we just have been thrown into a busy metropolitan morning; the day is new and Declan is grabbing us by the hand for an adventure to the moon! His vocals have a great blend of maturity and playfulness, even the lyrics match this with ‘I’m out to buy a bag of quavers and some Nike Trainers’. The expansive sound of the percussion and the synths really opens you up to this album so well, the rhythm guitar also gives the song an extra drive that goes along away. It really gets your hopes high from the word go!
‘Be an Astronaut’ follows the obvious theme of the record, space, but also wanting to celebrate the attitude of do whatever you want to do! It really has a nice chorus and a great twist after with a vocal distortion and percussion change, helloooo glam rock. It seems like Declan learnt a bit from what Harry Styles did wrong on Sign of the Times and did it all by himself (this is a songwriter people).
‘The Key To Life on Earth’ is a great idea and pulled off, well. The rhythm is playful and begins with a slight spooky synth; the vocal melody coming in does amplify the song in a better direction, especially with the track name being sung like…’th-e-keii-toooo-li-fe-on earrtthh’. Declan wrote this on the train when thinking about the discrepancy of fortune and wealth, while people think they know how everyone should live, overall the track is a modest level of bringing that truth to our ears. ‘Beautiful Faces’ has a very swift guitar hook that greets us at the start. The track has a great blend of Lennon/Bowie influences and my god, the ‘beautiful FFFFACCCESSS’ just survives the cringe meter but heyy!
‘Daniel, You’re Still A Child’ opens like The Beatles song ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’ and again, it just about survives the cringe meter. Daniel does seem to be a recurring character on the album but is obviously mentioned on this track of course; he seems to represent how people can feel alienated in a world where we all have everything at our finger tips, making that feeling more of a problem and freakish. Declan really writes well on this topic on the album, asking us to dream for the stars and be genuine.
‘Emily’ has an acoustic feel but does nothing for me and the vocal melody does get a tad annoying. The whole album has great ambition and its admirable, yet it does fall flat at times, especially with the next track called Twice Your Size’; however it really really sounds like the second cousin of ‘The Man Who Sold The World’, which I think im okay with. ‘Rapture’ does follow the recurring flaw as previously mentioned but is still interesting to say the least. Declan shows off some neat rhyming with ‘You're part of something bigger than the laws of nature, Mrs. Thatcher, Your cruel heart navigates the world we live in’.
‘Sagittarius A*’ is about how there is a black hole in the Milky Way and how we can all fall into a black hole like that in our lives, a very clever idea that really brings some realness and truth to the message. ‘Sagittarius..’ has an inoffensive melody and the driving indie guitar sounds nice, really does bring a much needed change in tone from the glitzy and glam sounds woven into the album.
The record finishes probably as strong as how it opened, which makes you wish there was more of that standard in the middle. ‘Eventually Darling’ opens softly with a sweet melody and an organ playing in the background, arriving at a moment where it belts out with its drums and guitars. After a squeaky voice line to remind us of the space themed nature of the record, the song expands so wonderfully and finishes so effectively with some backing vocals that are nicely mixed.
Comments