The Infadels are a five piece rock band who hail from London and have been present on the music scene s

ince 2003. They released their debut album ‘We Are Not the Infadels’ in 2006 and followed it up with their second ‘Universe in Reverse’ in June 2008. Latest single ‘A Million Pieces’ is the third offering from this album, and has four tracks on it.

Lead track ‘A Million Pieces’ starts off with a strong techno beat but is quite rocky and indie at the same time, a bit like American rockers The Killers. I would describe their sound as a cross between the Pigeon Detectives and Bloc Party. I liked the way the song switched between a fast paced verse and a slow bit, and although the lead singer Bnann Watts has a pretty ordinary voice, similar to Oasis front man Liam Gallagher, it worked well.

I also thought there was a good use of instruments in the song, with the guitar, bass, drums and heavy electro beat. I think the track will definitely be a big hit with rock fans.
The second track on the single titled ‘Shanghai Melissa’ was quite different to the first. It started with a wacky beat and chanting singing, again with very heavy use of the instruments, and perhaps a bit too much use of the drums and cymbals – it gave me a bit of a headache! I liked the kooky lyrics though – ‘I’ve got my ears wide shut and my eyes wide open.’ It also had a weird techno rave bit in the middle with warped echoed voices which I thought was bizarre and not needed!

The third effort on the LP was ‘Change my Colour.’ After the previous song I was a little apprehensive but this track luckily managed to change my opinion on the band again. The song goes straight into the action with great use of the drums and a cool beat, and I thought it was almost

quite dance/drum and bass like, but the guitars make it rocky. The lyrics were wicked and racy – ‘Change my colours back to loud as fuck.’ This song was a bit wackier than the first but I think it could really take off among the indie lovers and would be great to jump around to in a dingy club!

The last track on the single was called ‘Circus of the Mad’ (Orb Remix) and was totally bizarre. It started off much slower than the other songs, with a strange booming voice in the background which sounded like a lift-off countdown, and then used what can only be described as pan pipes! I think there was far too much experimenting with the editing on this song, and it was almost chill out music with a strange edge. This song sounded extremely different to the others tracks, and I actually wondered if this was the same band, or if another song had randomly crept itself on to the CD!

Overall I would say that this single deserves three out of five stars. It would have been four out of five but I couldn’t get over the very strange ‘Circus of the Mad’ (mad indeed…) and ‘Shanghai Melissa’ which were just too wacky for me. However, ‘Change my Colour’ is a genuinely good effort from the band and ‘A Million Pieces’ is a brilliant track which will be a guaranteed hit.

I think the Infadels are definitely a certain taste, but if you like bands like Bloc Party then you will probably be a fan.