Common Dreads

Common Dreads
Studio album by Enter Shikari
Released	June 15, 2009
Recorded	September 2008–February 2009 at Arreton Manor, UK
Genre	Post-hardcore, alternative metal, electronic music, alternative rock
Length	50:27
Label	Ambush Reality, Tiny Evil
Producer	Enter Shikari, Andy Gray
Enter Shikari chronology
The Zone (2007) Common Dreads (2009) Tribalism (2010)
Singles from Common Dreads
"Juggernauts" Released: June 1, 2009 "No Sleep Tonight" Released: August 17, 2009 "Zzzonked" Released: November 30, 2009

Common Dreads is the second studio album by Enter Shikari released on June 15, 2009 and June 16 in the US.^[1] Recording of the album began in September 2008 and ended in late February 2009. The album was produced and mixed by Andy Gray at Arreton Manor. Guitar production was carried out by Dan Weller of WellerHill and the defunct band SikTh.

History

Enter Shikari began work on their second album towards the end of 2008 and started demoing songs in "The 'Low" (episodes released on YouTube by Enter Shikari showing their progress.)^[2]

In late September, the band posted a video on their Youtube channel of "Antwerpen" filmed live in "The 'Low".^[3] This track was to become the first track released, made available as a free download, linked from the band's MySpace page.^[4] A video has now been released for the single "Juggernauts".

The new album was recorded in Arreton Manor situated on the Isle of Wight. Several new songs were played live in the tours and festivals leading up to the new album. The album has a political motive behind it and references to the current economic climate is a topic that is covered.

The new single, Juggernauts, was premièred on Thursday the 15th of April on Radio 1's Zane Lowe show, and a video was released viewable on their website.^[5] "Rou" Reynolds told Kerrang! that the song was inspired by the book Tescopoly by Andrew Simms.^[6]

On Monday 8 June 2009, the album was made available to stream to the public from the NME website for free. It released officially on the 15th of June 2009 through Ambush Reality.

It entered the album charts at number 16 selling 15,000 copies in its first week.

It was announced via the Enter Shikari website that the second single from the album would be "No Sleep Tonight", to be released on the 17th of August 2009.

Enter Shikari's song Wall premièred on Zane Lowe's show on 29 September 2009, but is not scheduled for release as an official single. The next official single was Zzzonked, with the official video being released on Ambush Reality/Enter Shikari's official Youtube Channel on the 7th Oct 2009. This was recorded at Norwich on the first leg of their European tour in 2009, The video can be seen here.

The album has a distinct stylistic change to Take to the Skies, most notably, more use of clean vocals and a mixture of more electonic music genres, including Drum and Bass, Electro house and Dubstep, as well as the trance and electronic hardcore which was explored on their debut album.

Lyrics

There is a drastic lyrical change in the new album. The band formerly wrote lyrics concerning various different subjects and made frequent use of metaphors. In Common Dreads, the band's lyrical subjects concern socio-political topics, like in "Step Up", a song that critiques free world trade. The song "No Sleep Tonight" speaks about the ecological situation of today. The song "Fanfare for the Conscious Man" contains lyrical connotations to the injustice of the various wars the government were engaging in whilst Enter Shikari were writing the album, the line, "Our gracious queen should grasp her crown, and take a good fucking swing at Blair and Brown" confirms the anti-war views of this song. The band expresses further political ideas in the song "Juggernauts" where the closing line is; "The idea of community will be something displayed in a museum", when coupled with the anti-capitalist and hopeless tone of previous lyrics, can be interpreted as a Pro-Collectivist stance. They are outspoken against the Afghanistan War and Iraq War, Israeli treatment of Palestinians, mainstream media and supportive of GreenPeace, Stop The War Coalition, Unite Against Fascism and the Zeitgeist movement. Rou has also said he believes that leaders are unnecessary.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk	(78%) link
Allmusic	link
Digital Spy	link
Entertainment.ie	link
Kerrang!
Metal Hammer
NME	link
The Observer	link
Planet Sound	link
Rock Sound	link
The Times	link
Ultimate-Guitar	link

Common Dreads has polarised critics. Ultimate-Guitar rated the album with an overall rating of 9.3/10.^[7] Similarly, music magazines Kerrang! and Metal Hammer gave very positive reviews, Kerrang! rating the album 5/5. The album also has its critics. Digital Spy gave the album 3/5 calling it 'hit and miss'. Pete Paphides of The Times gave the album 2 stars out of 5, describing it as "a titanically inadvisable mash-up between Gallows and John Craven’s Newsround."^[8] Similarly, Lauren Murphy of entertainment.ie described it as "an overkill of brawn, insufficient brain."^[9]

Tracklisting

All songs written and composed by Enter Shikari. 

Common Dreads
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Common Dreads"	2:08
2.	"Solidarity"	3:16
3.	"Step Up"	4:40
4.	"Juggernauts"	4:44
5.	"Wall"	4:29
6.	"Zzzonked"	3:27
7.	"Havoc A"	1:40
8.	"No Sleep Tonight"	4:16
9.	"Gap in the Fence"	4:07
10.	"Havoc B"	2:52
11.	"Antwerpen"	3:15
12.	"The Jester"	3:55
13.	"Halcyon"	0:42
14.	"Hectic"	3:17
15.	"Fanfare for the Conscious Man"	3:45
Total length:		50:27

iTunes Bonus Tracks
No.	Title	Length
16.	"Enter Shikari" (Live Track)	4:00
17.	"Labyrinth" (Live Track)	3:29
18.	"Return to Energiser" (Live Track)	5:46
Total length:		1:03:02

Japanese bonus tracks [10]
No.	Title	Length
16.	"We Can Breathe in Space, They Just Don't Want Us to Escape"	5:54
17.	"All Eyes on the Saint"	5:53
Total length:		1:01:34

Personnel

Band Roughton "Rou" Reynolds - Lead vocals, additional guitars, lap steel guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, programming, samples, electronics, trumpet, trombone, bongos, piano, church organ, percussion, lyrics Chris Batten - Bass, backing vocals Liam "Rory" Clewlow - Lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing bongos, backing vocals Rob Rolfe - Drums, percussion

Additional personnel Andy Gray - Vocals on "Hectic" Dan Weller - Additional guitars Production Enter Shikari - Production Andy Gray - Production, recording engineer, mixing engineer Dan Weller - Production Tom Young - Mastering

Chart performance

Chart (2009)	Peak position
UK Albums Chart	16

References

1. ^ Play.com - Common Dreads
2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BF1752A65B469E82 Video Diaries
3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-D6Y65wzcg&feature=PlayList&p=BF1752A65B469E82&index=8 YouTube Antwerpen Live From The Low
4. ^ http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=2687807&blogId=473099136 Antwerpen
5. ^ Juggernauts video
6. ^ Juggernauts Songfacts
7. ^ http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/enter_shikari/common_dreads/index.html
8. ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article6464092.ece
9. ^ http://entertainment.ie/album-review/Enter-Shikari---Common-Dreads/6397.htm
10. ^ Japanese Bonus Tracks