VNV Nation - Automatic

With steady feet, VNV Nation has climbed the mountain that is the electronic genre ever since they released their debut album 'Advance and Follow' back in 1995. With their amazing release 'Futureperfect' in 2002, they reached the summit and ever since, it's been quite a bumpy road downwards towards sea-level again. While tumbling down, Mr Harris seem to have found a hidden peak behind the highest of mountains he just been climbing down, to once again continue upwards.

After the release of 'Futureperfect', Ronan has really tried to find his way back again to the excellence without repeating himself. The result was with much influence of his instrumental techno'esque side project ModCom and the songs themselves where very varied in quality.

In 'Automatic', Ronan has taken a step back a decade and you easily recognize the soundscape, but even more the mood, of this new album's 9 year older brother. Even though VNV Nation is always danceable, when not coming to the ballads of course, it's not as techno inspired as before and therefore get a much darker tone to it, something I prefer and like.

While the heavier "Control" has been spammed out and became viral on the interwebs, it's one of my least favorite tracks on this album. Instead, I think perfection can be found in the seventh track "Gratitude", or why not in "Nove (Shine a Light on Me)", "Radio" or "Space & Time"? "Control" is simply too much alike "Chrome" and I'm not sure that VNV Nation is at is best when simplified and strictly for the dance floor. When I want to feel like a 16 year old with hormonal depression tendencies, VNV Nation suits me well. When I want something for the hard dance floor mayhem, there's a lot of more preferable options.

You can really hear how Harris tries and tries, he tries so hard to reach his promised years, but even though 'Automatic' does not reach all the way, it's his best album in 9 years with 10 solid tracks. Still, I can't help but wonder if any more peaks will be found during his descent, or if this was the last whiff of fresh cold air. Oct 10 2011