_____Much like people use technological and political revolutions to define eras in history, I use music to distinguish between different periods of my blurry teenage years. It sounds a bit silly, and quite weird, but, for me, it’s remarkably accurate. All the milestones and memories I have of the past four years I can distinctively relate to reference to music. First time I went out drinking, I still had 63 Britney Spears songs on my iPod. The first time I KO’ed, Invaders Must Die was soundtracking my downward gin-enduced spiral. And the first time I touched a girl’s boobs was during the second most-insane concert I’ve ever been to (Yes, Muse take the gold there too), in the height of my obsession with Pendulum. As awesome a rite of passage it was though, it probably wasn’t worth missing the best of part of Showdown for…
___So, whenever I hear someone plead with God to send them back in time to fourth year, or pass a hungover transitioning adolescent in the corridor on a Monday morning, The word Hadouken! flashes before my eyes in crazy high-visibility writing. They could not have been more fourth year. No gaff would pass by without Liquid Lives getting played at least five times. No gaff would similarly pass without getting a run-down as dictated by Get Smashed Gate Crash. And I’d have shouted torrents of abuse at you from a distance if you told me I’d come to wear the skinny-fit jeans and like the indie-Cindy’s described in That Boy That Girl. In fact, at the time, their Wikipedia page even referred to their music as “Fourth Year Rave Pop”. And it really was. Once we left the beautiful place that was TY, I couldn’t listen to Music For An Accelerated Culture for substantial periods of time without it hurting my ears. Lol, even the video for this, perhaps the only song of that album that I can still listen to without flinching at the associated taste of Devil’s Bit in my mouth, is a bunch of 16 year olds running away from police.
_____So, over the past one and a half years, apart from irregular listens to their Plan B or Bolt Action Five remixes, I have steadily matured, and consequently grown out of such anti-social noises, discarding these London lads as mere adolescent elders who had taught me all they knew. They then released M.A.D. EP, which didn’t exactly convince me otherwise, however it did come as a harsh reminder of what I used to be like, and literally the effect it had on me as an annoying prick of a fourth year. And, weirdly, I really liked it too.
___Then, trying to negotiate my way through their neon mess of a MySpace, which has since been gracefully changed, I read that James Smith and his “grindie” group had an album in the works, and that it is was a much more mature record. They even admitted that their debut LP was a tad ridiculous from a strictly aural point of view. Could Hadouken! have actually grown up and be ready to be the studious song of sixth year? For The Masses replies in a still slightly aggressively raised tone, yes, and, at the same time, certainly fucking not.
_____As an album, it definitely does portray a much more experienced and adult band, as shown by the appropriately named opening track Rebirth. However, there is still one or two tracks in there that just beg the question, “should these guys really be allowed to vote?”, and, if Mic Check is anything to go by, then no, they seriously shouldn’t. Although, I suppose they don’t really pose any threat to the democratic system, they’d probably just draw a huge knob on their ballot and run away.
___What’s ironic however, is that while the new sound we hear in Bombshock and House Is Falling Down, the latter even being the strongest track on the record, it’s still the rebellious yet harmless (amusingly also the actual Oxford Dictionary definition of a fourth year) Ugly that appeals to me. The first chorus opens with an epic “AAAAAAOOOOHHHH I’M GONNA FUCK YOUR FACE OFF”, which is not only lyrically something Thom Yorke would likely vomit upon hearing, but it actually sort of works. “It’s ugly like your sister” beautifully represents how, just cause you grow up, doesn’t mean you can’t still be obnoxious and make sister-jokes. I’d love to post it up here, but I feel I should ease you into the criminally pubescent Hadouken! sound with the first single off the album, which is pretty cool too.
_____So, to give a final verdict on the emotional growth of this crowd since their offensive debut, I’d say they certainly aren’t the embarrassing epitome of your average annoying fourth year anymore. No, now they represent those exact same fourth years, only one and a half years later; slightly more mature, but still find it amusing to play hide the can at free gaffs. I love that game…
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