The Enemy

You've heard all about the "difficult second album". A cliché, an excuse failing bands wheel out in perpetuity to explain why they ran out of ideas and could never match the pure enthusiasm of their first release.
We'll spare you that.

Instead, welcome to an ambitious, experimental and daring second album, by a band that weren't just unfazed by trying to live up their debut but actually relished the challenge of going one better.
The album is called Music For The People and it's by a three-piece from Coventry called The Enemy.

With their first album, 2007's We'll Live In And Die In These Towns, Tom Clarke (vocals, guitar), Andy Hopkins (bass) and Liam Watts (drums) produced a record with its sense of shared-spirit, crafted anthems that resonated so widely they became embedded in hearts and minds everywhere.
Following that is no easy task – but retreat is not in The Enemy's nature.

"The first album will always be unique to us, it was a special year. We managed to get a lot of people into music who weren't into music before," observes Tom Clarke of We'll Live And Die In These Towns' impact, before adding that the new album was not created by toasting past glories.

"The new record will stand the test of time," declares the singer. "There are songs on there the likes of which people haven't heard for years but they're not retrospective either. There's a lot of brave new stuff no one is expecting from us. I want say I'm cautiously optimistic for the album but I can’t, I'm just optimistic! It will blow a lot of people away. There are people who don't know our band yet or write us off as three chord indie who are going to be surprised. We have really grown a set of bollocks, that's the only way to describe it.
"We were young as a band on the first album, we'd only been together for three months, whereas now we've seen the world, grown a set a bollocks and written a massive album about the last couple of years."

That album is Music For The People.
Recorded at Monnow Valley Studios late last year with producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight) the trio's second record is as bold as its title.
"People have forgotten how to record proper rock n roll records," says Tom. "That's what we wanted to do. It's a big sounding record and a lot of bands are going to have to up their game when it comes to recording after this. We don't really hold back. We've spent two years on the road and we wanted something that showed how big the band can be. "

Partly helped by the band and Crossey's desire to create an album properly, cutting it onto the warmth of tape rather than use a cold, calculating computer – " I spend most of the money I make on buying guitars, so if I buy a nice guitar I want to hear it, I don't want it blanded out to an average," notes Tom – the true driving force behind the album is The Enemy's passion, experience and belief.

"How we recorded the album would be insignificant though if it didn't have the songs," explains the singer. "This is a great sounding record made from the school of the old but has got some brand spanking new anthems that are undeniable on it."

Already a live favourite having been played at last year's festivals 'Sing When You're In Love' is immediate proof that The Enemy have lived up to their own expectations. Plucking the same heart-swelling strings as the best moments on their debut, but this ode to the redemptive power of song boasts a more widescreen take that compares with fellow anthem writers like Springsteen. Meanwhile closing track Silver Spoon was one of the last songs to be written for the album - it was actually penned late night in the Welsh studio - yet it bristles and swaggers as only the climax of an Enemy album can.

However before we reach those final, definitive notes, the scope of Music For The People's vision ensures that normal service is never resumed.

First single 'No Time For Tears' sees the band experimenting with delicate pianos, howling guitars yet contains a very real and direct message the listener will immediate identify with.

"It's a monster," admits Tom. "The verses derived from a scrap with a bouncer, but the feeling of the song is just about working hard, whether you're a band or in you're life. The song is about how no matter how shit things are getting or how hard and ridiculous the struggle is, you can't give up the fight. Hopefully people will relate to that with what's going on at the moment in the world. Things are shite but if you give up what does change? It's not an option. You have to keep giving it your all."

Elsewhere the poignant Last Goodbye unveils a darker edge some might have doubted The Enemy possessed, yet as the singer explains as an emotional release it just a different expression of the same passion that fuelled raging first album single It's Not Ok.

51st State and Don't Break The Red Tape were written in tandem, and while resonating emotionally with the album's other tracks, they express themselves with a venomous snarl and a righteous voice.
"Politically we're in ridiculous times," explains Tom of the songs focus. "If this had been a few decades ago there would be people lining the streets shouting about it."

Well someone is shouting now, and boasting an epic like 'Elephant Song' as one of the album's touchstone tracks, The Enemy will not be denied.

With guitars that pound like juggernauts, yet buzz with electrical energy the opening track – named in honour of hometown Coventry's official symbol – is a sonic assault.

"It's a Zeppelin rift with early Verve going on over it," declares Tom with some pride. Inspired by the band's first trip to Japan, this is not a tail of tour bus living or sound tracks, but is an inspiring piece of wanderlust.

"It is about the excitement of landing in far away lands and it feeling like you've gone to the moon," says the singer. "You've got the wide-eyed feel of three young lads discovering, that eagerness to explore."

Really it's that eagerness explore, to seek try new ideas and to push the boundaries that defines Music For The People - not in an obscurest, wilfully experimental way, but driven by a desire to create the best album possible.

"I just hope people appreciate what this record is: first and foremost it's a load of good songs," concludes the frontman, explaining that the title is not some grand statement of intent or some condescending pronouncement.
Music For The People is simply that. Music The Enemy want you to hear and enjoy in the same way they way they buzzed while creating it.

"I was in a bar in Manchester, absolutely steaming, and there was this neon sign across the bar saying that: 'Music For The People'," explains Tom of the title. "In my inebriated state I stood there for ten minutes just going 'that's what we do, we make that'. And we do! That's really is the definition of our job. [laughs] At all our gigs there's always been people from every walk of life, it's something I'm quite proud of, our crowds are quite classless."

"We don't make music for a little niche of people, we make it for absolutely everyone."

This Music is for you.