Athlete 'Black Swan' (Polydor) Released 24/09/09

Put yourself in the shoes of has-beens. Once you get the taste of success on such a level that 'Wires' did, it must be difficult - no, truly painful not to repeatedly find that feeling of national love towards the music you make. Because Athlete still make commercially-inclined pop songs, the kind that five years ago would have made the top 10. But times have changed and Athlete's latest single peaked at #71 in the charts. What now?

Well, 'Black Swan' keeps in tune with the band's knack of delivering a sumptuous blend of guitar-driven pop and emotional balladry. To stay close to the roots is a brave decision and it might pay off - any one of these songs could strike sudden popularity if it was say, played in the closing scene of 90210 or the montage of England being knocked out of the World Cup Quarter Finals next year. The likes of 'The Getaway' and 'Black Swan Song' hit a reactionary nerve that could provoke tears among many a listener. Granted, these songs have no real meaning: "I'm still hooolding on" cries Joel Pott in 'The Getaway' - I could have sworn that was a Feeder song. But like Feeder, this is a band not within a mile of the charts and yet totally unable to write anything other than an anthemic pop song akin to the ones that suited them so well in the past.

And so this fading spark might want to go out on a high or, they might still have hopes of flying to the heady heights of yesterday once more. But consider something: what made 'Wires' so touching, so popular, was that it was a song about somebody dying in a hospital and the loved one's first sight of seeing them all wired up on life support machines. If that's not a moving thought I don't know what is and it was conveyed perfectly and it made the top 5. Today, The Antlers are playing that card. Athlete's songs don't mean much anymore and very few are still into the sound that hasn't budged an inch from 2004 to the present day.

This is a high-budget, professional album by a band well aware of every trick in the book. It showcases U2-esque, stadium-worthy juggernauts 'Magical Mistakes' and more stripped down efforts ('Love Comes Rescue', 'Rubik's Cube') that show loyalty to 2007's 'Beyond the Neighbourhood'. This isn't a muddle of an album, Athlete went into the studio knowing exactly the kind of songs they wanted to write. But be it false hope or being totally out of touch, music has moved to new territories, the charts are rid of this and Athlete come across as naive. You can only sympathise and bathe in the nostalgia.