In my recent live review of The Enemy I concluded that they are a band of youth playing for the youth, and what impact they will have on the wider audience is debatable. After spending some time with their debut album I would like to say what a load of bollocks those comments were, and that this is a band of right now with something that most of their contemporaries forget to do – write tunes – absolutely brutal, mind-bending, glorious tunes – and by the bloody truck load.

The music is very simple and passionate rock, with a very deliberate focus on the songs and the melodies. The vocals are delivered with a very honest aggressiveness, with open imperfection a sure sign of the band’s confidence. The whole record sounds like you would hope a group of young men would sound in their natural state; without the often over-invasive touch of a renowned producer to sharpen and commercialise the sound.

There are so many highlights here, in fact I won’t exclude a single track from the highest of praise. These are songs of utter frustration at the England that teenagers see before them and although there is hope in the songs, I think the raw honesty of being really hacked off with things is far more striking. Lyrically it should strike a chord with everyone, and it’s astonishing that these teenagers have managed to figure out what it takes most of us a lifetime to realise. The starter is appropriately titled ‘Aggro’, which has a very dark undertone to keep the vocals from being taken too lightly. The brilliant opening is followed by ‘Away From Here’, which in my opinion is the best single released in any genre of music since System of A Down destroyed all before them with ‘Chop Suey’. It is THE anthem of the last five years, maybe not as accomplished musically, or as instantly appealing as most of the other great songs released at that time, but it is just everything that is great about music in its most simple form. The album then moves from dark songs about what causes the problems for kids today on ‘Pressure’, to more uplifting escape routes such as ‘Had Enough.’ I am reluctant to focus on individual songs because every one of the eleven tracks just comes at you and pins you down with nothing more than the brute force of the tune and its delivery. But the title track along with ‘You’re not Alone’ and ‘40 Days and 40 Nights’ are particularly special. The only minor quibble would be that the final two tracks, ‘This Song’ and ‘Happy Birthday Jane’ which should have been split up rather than both conclude the album on a quiet note. But they are still fantastic in the way they show how these guys can reel in the noise and show their sensitive sides.

The Enemy have in a kind of odd way managed to probably take the biggest risk of all the new bands to have emerged in the last couple of years; they haven’t got any tricks, no new sounds, no gimmicks, no new genre, nothing, absolutely nothing but their tunes. And to deliver something so pure and simple and still be so breathtaking really is something to truly cherish. The best conclusion I can come up with is this, if the Arctic Monkeys are the youth, The Enemy are the yoof. And who really wants their rock to be to perfect anyway?

4/5