HARD-FI
Sweating Someone Else’s Fever (V2)
Middlesex four-piece Hard-Fi are back with a new studio recording after a 15-year hiatus. Sweating Someone Else’s Fever has all the band’s trademarks – solid beats, distinctive vocals, great tunes and faultless production – but what it doesn’t quite have is its own identity.
It has to be said that Hard-Fi peaked too early. Their first album, Stars Of CCTV, was an instant hit – and a hard act to follow. The social commentary on classics such as Cash Machine was raw and organic, yet here, on tracks such as I Ain’t Going Out Tonight, it sounds forced. The album’s first single, They Ain’t Your Friends – a poppy, boppy number about social media – lacks the conviction of their earlier lyrics.
But Sweating… isn’t without merit. When Hard-Fi distance themselves from their 2005 classic, they write some pretty decent songs: Rose and You Rule My Heart, for instance, sound fresh and forward-facing. Sweating Someone Else’s Fever is enjoyable enough, and at its strongest when the band stop trying to be relevant and simply play good music.
words LYNDA NASH
