The Bishops: For Now (W2 records, 2009)
The Bishops is a young british group whose self-titled debut was a really great album. Everything looked really promising, but unfortunately the follow-up For Now doesn’t quite live up to the expectations. It just feels a bit indiffirent and it lacks the energy and raw rock’n’roll of the debut. While the debut was an energic blast of 60’s influenced rock’n’roll, this new one takes a giant step towards lame modern indie bands. The biggest problem is definitely the production. Where is all the action, sweat and energy. It just sounds way too clean and almost boring when compared to the debut. The songwriting quality is still pretty good and if this had been recorded at Toe-Rag studios with the same producer as the debut, this could have been almost as good as the debut. Only almost because the debut did have 3 or 4 truly fabulous songs that this one doesn’t have. The rest of the songs on the older album are probably pretty equal when compared to these new songs. The old ones just sound million times better and are therefore really enjoyable. For Now is not a bad album, but it’s still rather difficult to find a reason why I would spend much time listening to it because there are lots of much more imaginative releases out there. Like their awesome debut album. I’m guessing The Bishops is still a kick-ass live band, but hopefully they again start listening to those 60’s garage bands before entering to the recording studio next time.
