The Enemy

You’re Not Alone

Sep 4, 2007
4 Comments
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There will always be people who hate them, of course, because they shout and rage and do not affect a heroin-befogged pallor. This, though, is the moment that even the most steadfast of Enemy enemies is forced to admit that, yeah, OK, they have got just a little something about them.
It seems frankly incredible that they would ever manage to out-anthem ‘Away From Here’, but they’ve managed it with this juggernaut-with-its-brakes-cut-thundering-down-a-hill show-stopper of a song. It manages to distil into its glorious entirety echoes of U2’s better bits, The Jam, The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen,
while sounding like none of the above.

The only possible criticism of is that calling a modern relationship an “empire” is not the most romantic of sentiments, calling to mind the image of Darth Vader trying to persuade his missus to give it another go. But the chorus is pure anthem-making in excelsis. In fact, it’s no coincidence that, by the time it thunders into the last of its 223 seconds, Tom Clarke has been reduced into bellowing his lyrics as nothing more than vague approximations of the words, buoyed by the knowledge that he is putting the seal on something epochal.

However magnificent ‘Away From Here’ is, this one’s going to be their ‘I Am The Resurrection’. The way that the whole thing keeps ballooning and ladling on the volume until you’re waiting for a sound system implosion that never arrives. Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, 2007 has just received the song that will level the indie clubs, the Radio 1 roadshows and the provincial hippodromes alike. It’s all over bar the shouting, and there will be much of that.

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Comments (4)

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quel_dommage

Sep 10, 2007

robmacca

Sep 8, 2007

This is a tune that every working class person can be proud of, from the miners back in the 1980's to the car workers today. An anthem for a new generation of workers who feel let down by the corporate suits as they become the victims of the latest round of cost cutting.

"You're Not Alone" starts with talk of the once great empire, then being sold down the river like rats but rising up once again. United in the belief that "You're Not Alone" in whatever struggle comes your way. Tom Clarke sings with real passion and conviction, having seen close family relations sold out after years of dedicated loyalty. Andy Hopkins on bass and Liam Watts on drums lend dedicated support to round out this hard hitting single.

supercooper13

Sep 13, 2007

If this is the future the British Music scene is in a sad and sorry state.

directorarchaeology

Apr 15, 2008

The enemy are such an awesome and befuddling contradiction. They claim to be proud of their faux-Coventry roots (the most part of the band originally came from Kennelworth) and yet all they seem to do is whinge about the working class life. To be fair, the working class of Britain is slowly disappearing and being replaced by a mix of foreign labour, doll claimers and a now tiny real working class that work in factories. These are now not the masses but instead, the masses, those which follow boring generic attempts to unite people who don't really have it that hard are a large group of lower middle class families who have their TVs, houses, free education, free healthcare and free libraries. Despite this, they still feel the need to moan. Everybody enjoys a good moan, but after a while it just seems to get a bit boring. I appreciate that Tom Clarke has no grasp of politics and history but still, he must realise that the success of the 'empire' was based on the exploitation of the many for the profiteering of the very few.If Tom is so unhappy with some people losing their jobs at the MG factory