"I wish that I could stop the noise," sings Barry Hyde not long into The Chaos. It sure doesn't seem that way — for the better part of the past decade, these UK post-punk guys have been churning out records with a regularity that suggests noise is what they live for.
Their fourth album deviates not at all from the sound they've been hammering away at since their homonymous 2004 debut: tight, speedy power-pop jams punctuated by the occasional burst of lush four-part harmony. In fact, if the Futureheads had replaced everything on The Futureheads with these 11 tunes (but kept that debut's excellent cover of Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love"), they'd probably have met with just as much out-of-the-gate acclaim.
Alas, at this stage of the game, The Chaos may satisfy, but it rarely excites — something of a snag for a band whose whole purpose seems to be capturing in song the thrill of a thrill.
