Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Richard Patrick is back to his very best as Filter prepare to release their sixth album The Sun Comes Out Tonight. It seems an absolute age since Filter come out with all guns blazing, the music a weapon ready to be exploded onto the music buyer’s consciousness and turn their emotions inside out with the pulsating and riveting sound which is only matched by some of the great lyrics that was a hall mark, even if did court some controversy in songs such as Hey Man Nice Shot.
The Sun Comes Out Tonight frames that early ideal that the project set out to capture and gives it new meaning, more fluid, more tantalising and yet unconstrained as if the hole they had begun to involuntarily find themselves in has been filled in with them safe on the outside, breathing fresh air and giving a much welcome angry attitude in return.
What it boils down to is a band, a project that after a while of seeming to stutter and look as if those early maddeningly wonderful days had really disappeared into the midst of music time are now flowering again, this time with a much heavier root in which will enhance what they had going for them in the early to mid 90s.
The result, and what a result it is, that the addition of Jonathan Radtke, formally of the excellent Kill Hannah, on guitar and backing vocals gives Richard Patrick the absolute freedom to be as creative and aggressive as he likes. Tracks such as the opener We Hate It When You Get What You Want, Take That Knife Out Of My Back, It’s Got To Be Right Now and arguably one of the best songs on the album It’s My Time with its underplaying and wonderful feeling of nostalgia and superbly decadent melancholy just make the album a real find and an outstanding piece to get to grips with.
A huge welcome back to form for Filter, a presence that has been much missed.
The Sun Comes Out Tonight is available from Spinefarm Records and is released on June 3rd.