The Boxer Rebellion: 'Union'

Since the release of their acclaimed debut album, 'Exits', The Boxer Rebellion have gone through some tumultuous times.

If finding themselves without a label after a corporate reshuffle wasn’t bad enough, this news was quickly followed by the admission of singer Nathan Nicholson to an intensive-care ward suffering from an illness that led to him spending time on a life support machine. The fact that the band have been able to draw upon enough resilience and unity to release a second album is in itself remarkable, that it is brimming over with beautifully crafted songs that swim in the triumphant feeling of adversity overcome, is verging on the miraculous.

Originally released as a digital download, where it became the first self-released, digital-only download to break into the Billboard 100 album chart, 'Union' is an epic collection of fragile ballads that meld elements of Radiohead, Muse, Elbow, Editors and Kings Of Leon that, when combined with Nicholson’s startlingly crystalline falsetto, become pieces of music that rise above the sum of their influences.

Opener 'Flashing Red Light Means Go' is founded on a pounding drum beat and a chord progression that owes a debt to 'The Bends' but is transformed into a blisteringly pulsating stadium-sized rock song by Nicholson’s soaring vocal, which offers a sustained falsetto that even Thom Yorke would struggle to match. 'Evacuate' has the sort of angular, urgent riff that has become the trademark of Editors, allied to an angry, gravel-voiced vocal that highlights Nicholson’s versatility, whilst 'Soviets' is a swelling, heartwarming ballad that bears a flattering resemblance to 'Fake Plastic Trees'.

'Union' isn’t without its flaws – 'Forces' evokes The Cranberries at their most hectoring – and whilst it doesn’t represent anything astoundingly new, The Boxer Rebellion deliver their songs with such passion and panache that any missteps are soon forgotten. This is an album to be cherished.



Released on 14th September 2009 by Boxer Rebellion.

Written by Sam Monk.