dEUS - Vantage Point

by Simon T Diplock

Belgium’s best-known musical export swing for the fences

"There’s Backstreet Boys pop-thumps, strange samples, and itchy, scratchy guitar lines in the mix here and it’s these sort of unique, creative decisions that had names like Muse and Radiohead nodding politely towards dEUS a few years back."

dEUS didn’t exactly knock it out of the park last time out. Emerging in 2005 after a near five-year silence the spellcheck-tripping act, perhaps Belgium’s best-known musical export, produced the patchy ‘Pocket Revolution’. Three years later, and while vocalist/guitarist/head honcho Tom Barman has improved things, some problems remain in the quality control department.

Fifth long-player ‘Vantage Point’ is no bad record however. In fact there are songs here that reach sharply for your attention and don’t let go until they’re done. ‘Eternal Woman’ benefits from a slow pace, managing to stir real emotion in its restraint, ‘Favourite Game’ is hooky as hell (although not quite as catchy as The Cardigans’ similarly-named effort), and ‘Oh Your God’ is brilliant, a pure-bred rock song that morphs from U2-type guitar-drama, through handclaps, atmospheric choral sounds and drunken slurring, into a massive tune that sounds like it could power all five terminals at Heathrow.

Further in and ‘The Architect’ isn’t really a truly solid song, not in the way that the best ones here are anyway, but it does try something new. There’s Backstreet Boys pop-thumps, strange samples, electronic buzzing and itchy, scratchy guitar lines in the mix and it’s these sort of unique, creative decisions that had names like Muse and Radiohead nodding politely towards dEUS a few years back.

Not everything works so well though. Barman grips the reins far too tightly in places, powering through opener ‘When She Comes Down’ with no decent lyrics and little self-control, and while the music of ‘Smokers Reflect’- moody, slow-burning special stuff that would make for an intriguing movie soundtrack- is great, Barman’s voice is just too muscular to match it and instead marches over the top.

So once again, the ball stays resolutely inside the park. But nobody’s been caught out either, nobody should go home disappointed, and if dEUS can continue to up their game just a little from here, there’s no reason why they can’t reach the very same leagues they inhabited at their peak.

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