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Track List
01) Superhuman Touch
02) The Getaway
03) Black Swan Song
04) Don't Hold Your Breath
05) Love Come Rescue
06) Light the Way
07) The Unknown
08) The Awkward Goodbye
09) Magical Mistakes
10) Rubik's Cube
01) Superhuman Touch
02) The Getaway
03) Black Swan Song
04) Don't Hold Your Breath
05) Love Come Rescue
06) Light the Way
07) The Unknown
08) The Awkward Goodbye
09) Magical Mistakes
10) Rubik's Cube
3:56
4:32
4:48
4:33
2:52
5:26
4:42
3:59
4:43
4:31
Data Complete
70%
Total Rating
70%Total Rating
(2 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
2009
Indie
Relaxed
Rock/Pop
---
Slow
Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Black Swan is the fourth album by English rock band Athlete. released on August 24, 2009 it is their first release with Fiction Records. The album charted in the UK at number 18 on the 30th of August. The first single lifted from the album, "Superhuman Touch", was released on August 17, 2009 while "The Getaway" is lifted as the first single in the US. "Black Swan Song" proceeded as the second single taken off the record and a UK release of "The Getaway". It was also speculated and mentioned by the band that "Light the Way" was intended for a single release, but was yielded due to the 'Singles:01-10' compilation release.
Joel Pott explained the album title: "We read an article about Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book The Black Swan. He was saying that our lives are made up of a handful of significant shocks, good or bad. That's exactly how our journey has been over the last six years. We've had lots of unexpected highs and lows, as a band and as people." Black Swan comes from a desire for "getting the songs across as much as we could".
The song "Don't Hold Your Breath" was featured in an episode of Ugly Betty called "Blue On Blue".
User Album Review
Two years after Beyond the Neighbourhood, Deptford quartet Athlete return with some more emotion-laden, life-affirming, FM-friendly stadium rock. This time round it's far less low-key than its predecessor, and far more likely to appeal to their most avid fans. If one word were to sum up the sound, it's 'huge'.
While nobody's going to hand Athlete an award for innovation, their potent mixture of chiming, echo-driven guitars, rumbling bass and orchestral synth-assisted grandeur is nothing if not bracing. There's nothing as heartbreakingly affecting as Wires here, said song from 2005’s Tourist album evidence enough that Joel Pott's voice suits quieter moments rather than the more grandiose material now on offer. It's on the closing ace-up-the-sleeve Rubik's Cube, and the acoustic swing of Love Come Rescue, that he convinces the listener. However, when the sound grows large ”“ as on opening single Superhuman Touch ”“ the focus that lyrically sensitive material such as this requires is lost.
Tom Rothrock's production skills replace the band's own efforts on Beyond..., and along with their move to the Fiction label this is obviously a ploy to break past the invisible barrier that's so far impeded them joining the really big league. It's interesting to note that Rothrock's CV, featuring as it does James Blunt's last album, also includes Elbow, a band that few seem unwilling to put in the same league of uplifting stuff. But what really marks a difference between, say, the Bury band’s One Day Like This and Athlete’s rather lovely Black Swan Song? The divisions seem meaningless.
It would be crass to bang on about how, well... Coldplay-like Athlete are. Perhaps the trouble is that no-one's actually come up with a genre name for this kind of music. It oozes with emotion, with earnestness and with an uncanny knack for the grand, empty gesture. On one level it's soundtrack music, designed by committee for accompanying the significant 'moment' on some TV series. On the other it's a spark of hope in a world that sneers at such a contemptible lack of cynicism. The choice, dear reader, is yours.
It's far from even vaguely original, but it's undeniably successful. Now, what do we call it?
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
Available in:
Black Swan is the fourth album by English rock band Athlete. released on August 24, 2009 it is their first release with Fiction Records. The album charted in the UK at number 18 on the 30th of August. The first single lifted from the album, "Superhuman Touch", was released on August 17, 2009 while "The Getaway" is lifted as the first single in the US. "Black Swan Song" proceeded as the second single taken off the record and a UK release of "The Getaway". It was also speculated and mentioned by the band that "Light the Way" was intended for a single release, but was yielded due to the 'Singles:01-10' compilation release.
Joel Pott explained the album title: "We read an article about Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book The Black Swan. He was saying that our lives are made up of a handful of significant shocks, good or bad. That's exactly how our journey has been over the last six years. We've had lots of unexpected highs and lows, as a band and as people." Black Swan comes from a desire for "getting the songs across as much as we could".
The song "Don't Hold Your Breath" was featured in an episode of Ugly Betty called "Blue On Blue".
User Album Review
Two years after Beyond the Neighbourhood, Deptford quartet Athlete return with some more emotion-laden, life-affirming, FM-friendly stadium rock. This time round it's far less low-key than its predecessor, and far more likely to appeal to their most avid fans. If one word were to sum up the sound, it's 'huge'.
While nobody's going to hand Athlete an award for innovation, their potent mixture of chiming, echo-driven guitars, rumbling bass and orchestral synth-assisted grandeur is nothing if not bracing. There's nothing as heartbreakingly affecting as Wires here, said song from 2005’s Tourist album evidence enough that Joel Pott's voice suits quieter moments rather than the more grandiose material now on offer. It's on the closing ace-up-the-sleeve Rubik's Cube, and the acoustic swing of Love Come Rescue, that he convinces the listener. However, when the sound grows large ”“ as on opening single Superhuman Touch ”“ the focus that lyrically sensitive material such as this requires is lost.
Tom Rothrock's production skills replace the band's own efforts on Beyond..., and along with their move to the Fiction label this is obviously a ploy to break past the invisible barrier that's so far impeded them joining the really big league. It's interesting to note that Rothrock's CV, featuring as it does James Blunt's last album, also includes Elbow, a band that few seem unwilling to put in the same league of uplifting stuff. But what really marks a difference between, say, the Bury band’s One Day Like This and Athlete’s rather lovely Black Swan Song? The divisions seem meaningless.
It would be crass to bang on about how, well... Coldplay-like Athlete are. Perhaps the trouble is that no-one's actually come up with a genre name for this kind of music. It oozes with emotion, with earnestness and with an uncanny knack for the grand, empty gesture. On one level it's soundtrack music, designed by committee for accompanying the significant 'moment' on some TV series. On the other it's a spark of hope in a world that sneers at such a contemptible lack of cynicism. The choice, dear reader, is yours.
It's far from even vaguely original, but it's undeniably successful. Now, what do we call it?
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
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