Say "taut arrangements from a post-punk-inspired band, with clipped guitar riffs and brisk rhythms and a slightly yowling singer," and most, at least in 2007, might fall asleep or look elsewhere without thinking further of it. No question that
Harrisons are working in all too familiar a vein these days, whether one talks about
Interpol,
Bloc Party, or even
Moving Units as a clear predecessor. This unavoidable caveat established, No Fighting in the War Room is a game enough effort -- if all the energy and excitement is second-hand, to say the least, there are also enough straightforward Brit-pop derivations that, while equally familiar, result in an agreeable mesh throughout. So a song like "Man of the Hour," especially with its condemnatory, brusque (if extremely simply expressed) lyrical sentiments owes as much to the
Jam's anthemic mod-pop spike as much as it does shuddering propulsion. "Take It To the Mattress," meanwhile, could almost be a rougher take on the type of glossy funk that anchored
Duran Duran in the period of its greatest pomp. Calmer songs like "Simmer Away" and the thoroughly sap-minded "Listen" are the group's weak points, as much of an obvious and often tedious move as power ballads were for hair metal bands -- sometimes jaunty and sometimes melancholy romanticism with a small "r" that jangles and does even less than the full-on numbers, even when it occasionally speeds up.
Harrisons need to do a lot more than they have so far to be anything other than a familiar gloss on long established approaches, but as enjoyable-enough listening for a new modern rock generation, they could be doing a lot worse. ~ Ned Raggett