Common Dreads

Untitled

Common Dreads is the second studio album by Enter Shikari released on June 15th, 2009 and June 16th in the US. Recording of the album began in September 2008 and ended in late February 2009. Produced and mixed by Andy Gray at Arreton Manor, guitar production by Dan Weller of WellerHill.

History

Enter Shikari began work on their second album towards the end of 2008 and started demoing songs in "The Low" (episodes released on YouTube by Enter Shikari showing their progress.)

In late September, the band posted a video on their Youtube channel of "Antwerpen" filmed live in "The Low". This track was to become the first track released, made available as a free download, linked from the band's MySpace page. A video has now been released for the single "Juggernauts".

The new album was recorded in Arreton Manor situated on the Isle of Wight. Several new songs were played live in the tours and festivals leading up to the new album. The album has a political motive behind it and references to the current economic climate is a topic that is covered.

The new single, Juggernauts, was premièred on Thursday the 15th of April on Radio 1's Zane Lowe show, and a video was released viewable on their website. "Rou" Reynolds told Kerrang! that the song was inspired by the book Tescopoly by Andrew Simms.

On Monday 8th June 2009, the album was made available to stream to the public from the NME website for free. It released officially on the 15th of June 2009 through Ambush Reality.

It entered the album charts at number 16 selling 15,000 copies in its first week.

It was announced via the Enter Shikari website that the second single from the album would be "No Sleep Tonight", to be released on the 17th of August 2009.

Enter Shikari's song Wall premièred on Zane Lowe's show on 29th of September 2009, but wont be released as an official single. The next official single will be Zzzonked, with the official video being released on Ambush Reality/Enter Shikari's official Youtube Channel on the 7th Oct 2009. This was recorded at Norwich on the first leg of their European tour in 2009, The video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrDse_2lEDA&feature=fvsr.

Tracklisting

All tracks are written by Enter Shikari

Common Dreads

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Common Dreads"	2:08
2.	"Solidarity"	3:16
3.	"Step Up"	4:40
4.	"Juggernauts"	4:44
5.	"Wall"	4:29
6.	"Zzzonked"	3:27
7.	"Havoc A"	1:40
8.	"No Sleep Tonight"	4:16
9.	"Gap In The Fence"	4:07
10.	"Havoc B"	2:52
11.	"Antwerpen"	3:15
12.	"The Jester"	3:55
13.	"Halcyon"	0:42
14.	"Hectic"	3:17
15.	"Fanfare for the Conscious Man"	3:45
Total length:		50:27

Japanese bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
16.	"We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don’t Want Us To Escape"	5:54
17.	"All Eyes On The Saint"	5:53

Lyrics

There is a drastic lyrical change in the new album. The band formerly used lyrics concerning different subjects that are important to adolescents. In Common Dreads the band's lyrical subjects concern socio-political like in 'Step Up'. A song that formulates a critique against free world trade. The song 'No Sleep Tonight' speaks about the ecological situation of today.

Notes

• There are many references to the band's previous album and other releases by the band throughout this album. The song "Solidarity" features the line "And still we will be here, standing like statues" which was a recurring line in Take To The Skies. This song also features the line "We're not hiding", which is a line from the song "Enter Shikari" from "Take To The Skies". The intro to "Common Dreads" is the same as the ending to "Closing", the last track on Take To The Skies, giving the impression that this album is picking up where the last one left off. Also in the song "Wall" the line "This is no white abode" is a reference to the song "Sorry, You're Not A Winner" from Take To The Skies. There is another reference in the song "Havoc A" relating to the song "Acid Nation", "Just another day in the Acid Nation, expected to gulp down hindrance". There is also a reference to a line from the song "Kickin' Back on the Surface of Your Cheek" and the previous albums title itself in the track "No Sleep Tonight", with the line "You and me we're gonna take to the skies".

Reception

Common Dreads has polarised critics. Ultimate-Guitar rated the album with an overall rating of 9.3/10. Similarly, music magazines Kerrang! and Metal Hammer gave very positive reviews, Kerrang! rating the album 5/5. The album also has its critics. Digital Spy gave the album 3/5 calling it 'hit and miss'. Pete Paphides of The Times gave the album 2 stars out of 5, describing it as "a titanically inadvisable mash-up between Gallows and John Craven’s Newsround." Similarly, Lauren Murphy of entertainment.ie described it as "an overkill of brawn, insufficient brain."

2-Disc Remix Album

A 2-disc version of Common Dreads is due to be released in January 2010. Frontman Rou Reynolds announced that “We’ve got a different artist for each single from Hospital Records to do drum ‘n’ bass remixes so we’ll be releasing that as a 12. Then we’re doing the same thing with (dubstep label) True Tiger who’ve done a dubstep remix of each single.” He also announced that the follow up album to Common Dreads is to be released some time in 2011 with recording starting in Autumn 2010.

Personnel

• Roughton "Rou" Reynolds - vocals, electronics, lyrics, additional guitars, trumpet, trombone, bongos, piano, church organ
• Liam "Rory" Clewlow - guitar, vocals, bongos
• Chris Batten - bass, vocals
• Rob Rolfe - Drums and other percussion.

• Andy Gray - Additional vocals on "Hectic"
• Dan Weller - Machine heads on 'Zzzonked'.

Chart performance

Chart (2009)	Peak position
UK Albums Chart	16