Album Reviews

Six years after “Vanguard”, Belgium’s electro/indie rockers The Sedan Vault are finally back with a new album, called “Minutes To Midnight”. Opener “Streetwalkers” kicks your ass right from the start and it quickly becomes obvious that the band around the three brothers Meeuwis means business. Yeah, “Vanguard” was good but this is better. The drums on here are played with such urgency, you get the impression drummer Frederik had an itch he couldn’t scratch until the end of the song. Could it be a nifty trick that producer Richard Woodcraft (Arctic Monkeys, Last Of The Shadow Puppets) used on them to get the best out of the band? Who knows, but it works! Especially when combined with Marius’ ominous synth sounds and Rutger’s paranoid vocals.

And wait, it gets even better with “Drunk Dialing”, where the guys stick to the same formula but throw in an even more massive chorus. “Fix Me Up” is up next and sounds less busy yet equally urgent. Nothing wrong with that and the guitar solo at the end is downright sweet.

Basically this album is one highlight after another… you don’t even need to hear “From Mick To Jagger” to know that it’s going to be good, “Chase And Run” deserves to be single (after “Drunk Dialing”) and the more mellow “Everything Is Everything” (which is the first single), shows yet another side of the band. Yet it always unmistakably sounds like The Sedan Vault. Even when they cover Suicide’s “Ghost Rider”, they still sound like themselves.

Six years is a long time in between albums…I could now throw in a cliché and say that after having heard “Minutes To Midnight”, it was definitely worth the wait… but fuck that! I want an album like this every year!