Album Review: Activate!

Robots in Love are an experienced music organisation from  Ōtepoti/Dunedin, with a fair bit of work already under their collective belt. Elenor Rayner(vocals, production), Alex Burchell (drums, production) and Henry Flynn Wall (guitar) make up a tight unit, both creatively and- as anyone who has seen them live will attest- as a live band.

Right from the off, their latest album Activate! is a musical statement with a stadium level of ambition and assurance. Opening tracks Activate! and Crush are a one-two combo combining a classic live stadium walk-on instrumental piece with a niftily contextual opening lyric: “activate the cycle!” Indeed. It’s a beguiling invitation, no less so for its self-awareness. By the time a listener has a chance to process this, the riff of Crush has crashed into the first  big chorus of the album, and one can’t help but be carried along . After that, the second verse adds  a sucker punch with a wry lyric’ right now we are on top of the game’ Well, quite. It’s a terrific opening gambit, subtle and overt at the same time.

In terms of sound, for Robots In Love the start points(broadly speaking)are a blend of 80’s and 90s’ synth pop, industrial and goth. This makes for lots of sequencers, synths, big guitar riffs, industrial strength drum grooves and slabs of ‘big big big in the chorus’. In a nice repudiation (perhaps) of a contemporary aesthetic, there aren’t too many subtle washes of colour. This is Big, Bold and Fun. All sorts of reference points can be heard, from Nine Inch Nails in the groove, through Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Sisters of Mercy, Human League, Cabaret Voltaire….and lots more.

It would be wrong to dismiss this  as simply  the idea of the kids dipping into the playbox. These are intelligent, experienced  and skilled musicians, meaning that quality musical moments abound throughout this album. There are skilled arrangements, attention to detail in the production, meticulously tight grooves, and the big choruses are mighty indeed. The Sequel gets almost  prog in the bridge section, but not enough to cause real concern and if you got the long version of This Corrosion then you will get this, too. Cleverly there is the consistent  use of first person “we’ in the lyrics, again this goes against a modern way of doing things. Rather than exploration of inner thoughts and feelings, a consistent  “we” message  invites an audience in- making it all  about a shared rather than voyeuristic experience.

As well as sonic elements, a key aspect that Robots in Love have gleaned from that era is the balance between grim sounding sci-fi lyrics-delivered with the requisite seriousness- and the pure dress up and have fun approach. The party-at-the-end of the world mood is all about the right balance, which this group has got just right.

Activate! Is a big album in so many ways. There is an overarching narrative structure ( follow the song titles, basically), but it’s flexible enough to avoid the main two pitfalls of such a concept: 1) that you have to listen to the tracks in order and as a whole and 2) filler tracks for narrative purpose, and little else.

Assured, confident music made by clever and skilled musicians, Activate! is simultaneously an ambitious piece of work and  a huge dose of some very serious fun.