ALI is one of those bands that gives rock music a good name. Long tarred with a brush of cliche and crudeness, bombast and brashness, via The List, they inject a much-needed dose of style and sophistication into the genre. It’s a reminder that although rock music has long been the place of lowest common denominator efforts, it can also be a place of high art and creativity.
Although armed with the regular weapons of rock music, ALI instead uses them to blend understated textures and delicate tones, refined refrains, and less-than-obvious sonics into the rock landscape. By the time the beat kicks up a notch and a slinky saxophone wanders past, you realise that this is something a bit special. Perhaps to describe it merely as rock music at all is to sell it short.
But, if rock is at its core, then it is a sound as much forged from indie deftness and pop accessibility, not to mention a few more avant-garde moves, as it is from the bigger swathes of rock guitar that eventually wash over it.
ALI is a band that knows rock needs a makeover, that indie can be a sophisticated art form if it chooses to be, and that pop can be taken seriously if it only stops acting the fool. This is music that is big and clever. Well, whatever next?
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