COLLATERAL – Should’ve Known Better (2024)
Here it is, COLLATERAL‘s second album “Should’ve Known Better“. Is it any good? Does it demonstrate the band’s growth? Does it capture the essence of their live performances? All yes. Taking the melodic rock sheen of their debut, the guys added a more modern sound. What’s clever about this is that it sounds like Collateral, just updated.
Take as example second cut ‘Original Criminal’ might have the sort of riff that could come off from a 1986 American rock band , but it sounds like it’s been released in 2024. That’s the skill of producer Dan Weller (the producer of choice to modern rock bands).
“Teenage Dreams” is this bold(ish) new world writ large. There’s a heavier tinge to this. If they are the youth gone wild, then cool, but they’re doing it aggressively. Right in the middle of this is the best of the bunch: “Elysium” has the type of chorus that mere mortals can’t do. It’s exactly why people champion them in the way they do. It is 80s-tinged, yes!
They have been playing “The Long Road” and it has been prefaced by a moving speech about singer Tristan’s partner’s mother dying. You suspect that for all that Collateral is about them fulfilling rock n’ roll fantasies, then this one means every word.
Something that can often get overlooked is just how exceptionally good Collateral are at crafting songs. FM / Overland themselves would be proud of “No Place For Love” and the bold, strident energy of “Game Changer” fair old bursts with optimism. So does the rest of the album.
They are savvy enough to have deliberately bookended the record with its two most obviously “new” moments. “Final Stand” is the sort of thing Those Damn Crows (also produced by Weller) do so well, and it waves this record off into the night.
Collateral MK II (as they are calling it) isn’t so much a change they’ll leave people behind. It was never meant to be. Instead, it’s a band updating, revamping, and sounding better than ever.
The more things change, the more they don’t stay the same. Or, meet the new boss, not quite the same as the old boss. And I “Should’ve Known Better” than those dreadful play on words. Still, Collateral are doing serious damage here.
Highly Recommended
01 – Glass Sky
02 – Original Criminal
03 – Just One Of Those Days
04 – Teenage Dreams
05 – Elysium
06 – On The Long Road
07 – No Place For Love
08 – Game Changer
09 – Final Stand
Angelo Tristan (vocals, guitar)
Louis Malagodi (guitar)
Jack Bentley-Smith (bass)
Ben Atkinson (drums)
Pre order:
towerrecords.com/collections/pre-order-cassettes/products/collateral-shouldve-known-better-1
