Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

Barely a year and a half after ‘All These Countless Nights’, Deaf Havana are already back with a new album. And a new sound. Both of which are unfortunate and unnecessary.

‘Rituals’ comes with thirteen songs in which Deaf Havana go pop. Pure, unadulterated, shitty pop. Check out singles ‘Ritual’ and the title track… two songs so full of formulaic hooks, studio trickery and a sickly sweet sound that they made me want to run for the hills.

Apparently the band came up with the song titles first and then wrote songs around it. The result is a track listing that reads like the setlist of a particularly uninspired Christian rock band (‘Hell’, ‘Heaven’, ‘Holy’, ‘Worship’,…) and songs that are so cookie cutter, it’s hard to believe this is the same band that wrote ‘All These Countless Nights’.

To stick with the band’s religious theme… it’s time to put these guys in a basket and let them float down the river.