Innocuous is the most concise way to describe In-Flight Safety's sophomore record. There's nothing obvious to criticize and it never offends but there's nothing to rally around either. The Halifax-based group operate in the Bends-era Radiohead school of populist indie rock, and that's fine. But that pool is an awfully crowded one and it's going to take a lot more than what's on offer here to catch listeners' ears. The quartet sequestered themselves in a converted schoolhouse in rural Nova Scotia to make this album but unlike Bon Iver's backwoods triumph last year, the group's seclusion did nothing other than create a neat back-story. In-Flight Safety are a talented group capable of big things but by concentrating on rote atmospherics and limp, single-note guitar hooks they deny their fans the big sing-along songs that will finally bring the group to the masses. After all, what's the point of being a populist band if you're not actually that popular?
(Night Danger/Outside)In-Flight Safety
We Are An Empire, My Dear
BY Ian GormelyPublished Feb 9, 2009
