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Angst laden folkified rock 'n' roll

Take your traditional folk singer and mix them up with a bit of Aerosmith substance-driven vigour, and you have Barricades Rise styled folkified rock ‘n’ roll; melody and energy hits you in every track and refuses to let up.

Pure, jangling, rapid fire guitar chords played with enthused passion and a lead vocalist with a Bon Jovi-esque rock styled huskiness, all go to emphasise the mood of explosive yearning that seems to carry through most of the album, in a similar mode to Turin Brakes. Arching string melodies emphasise peaks in emotion (see 'Aftermath'); Barricades Rise really have managed to make songs that are an aggressively anguished cry through the stillness.

Setting their acoustics alight are artists Jonathan Coates (lead vocals and guitar) and Micheal McEntee (backing vocals and lead guitar) who found their rock ‘n’ roll roots in ahem...Nuneaton. They’ve been playing together since the age of sixteen, and, gripped by bare-all acoustic in 2008, gave birth to Barricades Rise who they took on tour in 2009.

Barricades Rise take the predominantly organic sound of various guitar-like strings, but add a sparse sprinkling of clever production techniques and effects, and layer on complementary melodies to add a depth and texture to their music that is missing from many acoustic set ups. Bass drum widens the impact of ‘This Creation’ and harmonising melodies on guitar, banjo and an oddly sincere and soulful sounding ukulele offer a more complex melodic sound. ‘Aftermath’ employs voice and breath in an angsty beatbox sort of way. ‘Messages’ has a murky wandering vagabond feel, with hand claps, prominent bluesy bass guitar and even a surprisingly emotive buzz from a kazoo ingeniously slipped in.

Not that there's ever a drop in energy or motion on 'You And Your Adored', but all that movement comes from angst and anxiety and gloom. Haunting and tormented sorrow is all very well, but if the boys would chill out a bit, I'm sure they'd sound good, and it’d add some emotional variety to this impassioned, intricately crafted record.