Stateless reviewed
Stateless
Stateless
(K7)
If hard times are the sister of vibrant new music, then it shouldn’t be too hard explaining Stateless.
Leeds, England, which has already produced Kaiser Chiefs and ¡Forward, Russia!, has watched its beloved football team plummet from the cusp of the European Cup to its recent third-division relegation. The Whites’ misfortunes down on Elland Road have (not really) infected Stateless with a post-millennial paranoia on their Radiohead-meets-DJ Shadow-spun debut. While electronic pops and scratches battle organic drums and guitar, singer Chris James floats his falsetto to lend “Radiokiller” a digital libido. Each time his voice soars, however, instead of taking the well-trod Coldplay/U2 path the band turn inward, a tendency sublimely captured by closer “Inscape,” which paces the floorboards before collapsing in a weary heap. It’s the claustrophobic “Exit,” however, capturing the band’s full scope – matching sweeping orchestral passages, pounding industrial beats, and intergalactic blips – in a climb Leeds has missed since scaling the heights in 2001.
— Steve Forstneger
