Messages is the most fashionable album that’s made its way into my conservative CD player in quite a while. Packed chock full of 90s techno riffs and 80s synths, it struts with a confidence in its timeliness.
Textspeak is advocated, punctuation is chucked out the window. This band are so now that you are guaranteed to age faster when you listen to them. (Even if ‘now’ is somewhere between the 1980s new-romantic and 1990s rave scenes).
‘Messages’ is something of a concept album, concerned with machines and how we interact with them. And this band interact with them a lot. Sharp synths and programmed drums form the core of the record, and in such tracks as ‘I Am xRay’ and ‘theGrid’ provide an intense, pulsing musical core.
The band employ an impressive use of dynamics on their technologically-fixated album, momentarily switching between sound levels and tempi with ease, such as on ‘model’ and on album opener ‘tell me, computer’. The pervading message seems to be that machines are good. Embrace them. They can make you better than you are on your own (Such folly! Haven’t they seen Terminator 2?).
‘Eliminate’ would be an obvious choice for a single, an accomplished pop song in the vein of Erasure, and ‘Eureka’ induces visions of Bob Mortimer in Shooting Stars with its chorus of “sing to me, Eureka-ka-ka-ka.” Both the music itself and the fact that To My Boy obviously have a sense of humour bring to mind such cult acts as Sparks and Devo, though TMB have less conviction.
The nowadays seemingly obligatory “secret” track adds nothing new to the mix, but substantially cranks up the BPM and is a rapid-fire exercise in sonic unease, the music establishing an insistent sense of imminent catastrophe, perhaps alluded to by the title “Game Over”.
It is a suitable end to a consistent album, which may be shaping or aping current musical trends, depending on your viewpoint. The way I see it, To My Boy consistently perform to current industry standards (just like a new processor) on what is a solid debut. No marks for punctuation, however.