DARTZ burst onto the scene in 2007 with their debut album ‘This Is My Ship’ providing something exceptional for a "student band" with chirping guitars and lyrics to resemble bands like BLOC PARTY. The Sad History… appears to be following a different road, the tracks aren’t as explosive or entertaining as some of DARTZ’s previous material such as 'Fantastic Apparatus' which swirled and crashed around you like the sea on a stormy day. Overall this album is far mellower, the band explained that this time around the lyrics for some of the songs were written before the music was decided, allowing the music of the track to be suited to the lyrics. The overall result initially seems to be a far more mature album illustrating the bands diversity.

'The Sad History of the Village of Alnerique' is very likeable with numerous tracks which easily stay with you, they are exceptionally easy to listen to over and over again. However it’s only when you start listening to the album in more detail that you may come to realise that a lot of the songs blur into a very similar style throughout the album, not providing much variation. Opener 'The Arrival, Building Alnerique' kicks off the album well with a lively chorus and a rhythm which will keep your foot constantly tapping. 'Oskar and Ofelia' drones on for a long time and becomes a bit of a bore, but about ninety seconds in, the entire track picks up and shows a bit of what the old DARTZ material was all about, unfortunately the last 45 seconds goes back to the monotonous styling of the start. I think that DARTZ are trying too hard to represent a more mature band and in doing so are straying too far away from what they are truly good at.

Further on we come onto one of the most annoying tracks of this album, 'What Happens to Places Where Spaces Should Be', it is essentially a filler track, this is ridiculous considering that the album is only eight tracks long, surely DARTZ could have spent a bit longer on the conception of the album to at least produce eight decent tracks to fill it up with or just cut it down to a few exceptional tracks. The following track 'The Lay of the Land' at least makes up for some of this mistake by being the best track on the album. This is the only track which may make you come back for more due to its sheer intensity.

Second to last track and we find yet another filler track, which I seriously don’t see the point in. Finally 'The End, Moving On' is a decent enough track which you can sing along to. Looking back on the rest of the album unless DARTZ produce something a lot better than this I think most people will not bother and will move onto something else to spend their money on. In conclusion 'The Sad History of the Village of Alnerique' appears to be an album simply trying to show that DARTZ have matured and can be diverse, but I don’t think it delivers this intention. I think that this album will only make the listener yearn for what DARTZ used to be all about.

Rating: 2.2/5.0

Alex Duncalf

Release Date: 22nd September 2008