This Picture
City of Sin (Arista) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
With so many marginal acts in rock ‘n’ roll being hyped way beyond their actual merit, it would be a shame if a group as talented as This Picture gets lost in the shuffle. On their second album, “City of Sin,” the British quartet lead by vocalist/lyricist Symon Bye marries introspective lyrics and subject matter with stirring arrangements in a way that vaguely recalls vintage U2. The group, though, is anything but a U2 clone band. Instead they’ve carved out a memorably distinctive sound all their own-a difficult feat these days. The songs’ lyrical themes include obsessive love (“Rains Like Fire”), politics (“Fire in the House”) and sex in the post-AIDS era (“Face Up to the Facts”), all performed with unflagging passion and superior musicality.
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