Hard‐Fi | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Staines, Englands Hard-Fi feature Richard Archer (vocals), Ross Philips (guitar), Kai Stephens (bass), and Steve Kemp (drums). The punk-inspired indie rock quintet formed in 2002; they feature a brash mix of Dexys Midnight Runners melodies, Franz Ferdinand hooks, and the theatrics of the Dead 60s. Hard-Fi self-released Stars of CCTV in October 2004, and all 500 copies quickly sold out. The U.K. indie imprint Necessary reissued the nine-song nugget the following June. Once again, HARD-Fi got the attention of the fickle British press and an eager British public. Singles such as "Cash Machine," "Tied Up Too Tight," and "Hard to Beat" were all chart hits, and U.K. show dates with the likes of the Bravery, the Kaiser Chiefs, and the Ordinary Boys were equally successful. Before the years end, Hard-Fi earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination for Stars of CCTV. They had also won over audiences at Glastonbury and at the annual SXSW Festival in Austin, TX. Two Brit Award nominations followed in early 2006 -- one for Best British Group and another for Best British Rock Act. Stars of CCTV went on to earn a number one spot on the U.K. album chart in January 2006; it was released in the U.S. in March, and although it didnt make quite as big of a splash stateside, it still set up high expectations for Hard-Fis next record, Once Upon a Time in the West, which came out in September of 2007. The following year, the band announced they were beginning work on a new album, and began a lengthy recording process that included working with producers like The Bird and the Bees Greg Kurstin. The album, Killer Sounds, was finally completed and released in August of 2011. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 7 Title: Cash Machine EP Released: 2005-04-26 Tracks: 4 Duration: 15:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Cash Machine (03:42) 2 Tied Up Too Tight (04:48) 3 Sick of It All (03:15) 4 Seven Nation Army (04:09) |
 | Album: 2 of 7 Title: Stars of CCTV Released: 2005-06-27 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Cash Machine (03:42) 2 Middle Eastern Holiday (03:44) 3 Tied Up Too Tight (04:48) 4 Gotta Reason (02:49) 5 Hard to Beat (04:13) 6 Unnecessary Trouble (03:44) 7 Move On Now (05:07) 8 Better Do Better (04:37) 9 Feltham Is Singing Out (04:36) 10 Living for the Weekend (03:42) 11 Stars of CCTV (03:58) |
| Stars of CCTV : Allmusic album Review : Naturally, NME called Hard-Fis debut album, Stars of CCTV, "the album of the year" upon its U.K. release in 2005. A year later, the Staines, England, foursome had a Mercury Music Prize nomination under its belt as well as two Brit Awards nods and a U.K. number one album. Those following the buzz on the other side of the Atlantic finally got their wish with the domestic release of Stars of CCTV in mid-March. With the popularity of Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, and the Kaiser Chiefs simmering down around this time, Hard-Fi stepped into the American pop conscience when they were supposed to. While their spark and spunk are near matches of those aforementioned acts, Hard-Fi delivers more of an angst kind of performance. Frontman Richard Archer is fueled by Tony Blairs England. After all, these are four friends from a southwest London town. They sound like a garage band while delving into the monotony of everyday suburban life, referring to their small town upbringing. Thus a raw kind of work ethic gradually emerges on Stars of CCTV. Their formula of snappy choruses and tight guitar hooks, particularly on "Middle Eastern Holiday" and "Gotta Reason," captures Hard-Fis youthful presentation. Archers boyish vocals switch off between gritty and playful. If "Living for the Weekend" does not convince you of Hard-Fis anxious effort in getting you to ease up on the ho-hum of working for a living, the fresh disco beats of "Hard to Beat" surely will. Hard-Fis desire to create something solid enjoyable in the midst of everyday monotony is what makes Stars of CCTV an enjoyable first effort. Whether they are singing about having little money, unexpected pregnancy ("Cash Machine"), or a war-torn world ("Felthams Singing Out"), Hard-Fi looks for something positive. Stars of CCTV offers a reason to look for something positive, too. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 7 Title: In Operation Released: 2006-05-08 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Cash Machine (Roots Manuva dub remix) (02:31) 2 Cash Converter (dub Machine, Part 2) (03:43) 3 Better Dub Better (Wolsey White dub) (03:02) 4 Middle Eastern Holiday (Wrongtom Meets the Rockers East of Medina dub) (04:52) 5 Living for the Weekend (Wolsey White & Fred dub) (02:10) 6 Seven Nation Army (03:55) 7 Dub of CCTV (Wolsey White dub) (03:29) 8 Better Do Better (Wrongtom Wild Inna 81 version) (03:14) 9 Dubbed Up Too Tight (03:20) 10 Move on Dub (04:18) |
 | Album: 4 of 7 Title: Once Upon a Time in the West Released: 2007-09-03 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Suburban Knights (04:32) 2 I Shall Overcome (04:16) 3 Tonight (03:55) 4 Watch Me Fall Apart (02:51) 5 I Close My Eyes (02:26) 6 Television (03:40) 7 Help Me Please (03:12) 8 Can’t Get Along (Without You) (02:58) 9 We Need Love (04:02) 10 Little Angel (02:52) 11 The King (03:14) |
| Once Upon a Time in the West : Allmusic album Review : A common thread that ran throughout the wild praise for Hard-Fis Mercury Prize-nominated 2006 debut, Stars of CCTV, is that the Staines quartet were warriors against the stultifying sameness of suburbia. Far from running from this pigeonholing, Hard-Fi opens up their second album, Once Upon a Time in the West, with "Suburban Knights," a pun that reveals the depth of their cleverness just as the second song, "I Shall Overcome," reveals the depth of their politics, as the title of the 60s protest standard "We Shall Overcome" is turned upside down and inward, making it a plea for personal release. Such is the world view of Hard-Fis singer/songwriter, Richard Archer, who does pen plenty of anthems about escaping the suburbs or other urban plights, but theyre pulled out of the rock & roll rebel handbook, as he inadvertently hits the clichés hard on Once Upon a Time in the West (which perhaps shouldnt be a surprise given the title), so desperate to tie himself to his idols (meaning the Clash, particularly Joe Strummer) that he forgets to create an identity of his own. If Archers lyrics are a bit textbook, they dont call attention to themselves, as theyre delivered in his pretty, plain earnest schoolboy voice that itself is swallowed up by the clatter of the band, who also blatantly echo their rock & roll heroes but assemble their thievery in ways that are often accidentally idiosyncratic. They dont rely on the Clash quite as heavily as they did on Stars -- there are righteous anthems and elastic reggae rhythms, but they dont dominate the proceedings -- and there still is a strong dose of the Verve, particularly in the spacey urban atmospheres, but there are also traces of Franz Ferdinands new wave revivalism, "We Need Love" has an electro hum, and "Cant Get Along" even dabbles in the bouncy British interpretation of Motown as patented by the Jam. Hard-Fis idiosyncrasy comes in how the band doesnt quite synthesize these together with finesse. Styles rub against each other like sandpaper and stray sounds stick out like shards of glass, which can make for interesting juxtapositions, but not really compelling ones, especially since the noisiest tracks are the least successful songs. Apart from "Cant Get Along," Hard-Fi are best when they go for the arena-filling power ballads, which make them not dissimilar to the Manic Street Preachers, another politically minded band who had their breakthrough when they polished their message until it could be swallowed unwittingly by the masses (and, like the Manics, Hard-Fi succumbs to grand gestures, such as the cover art of Once Upon a Time: a blunt "No Cover Art," a clever conceit somewhat undercut by the bands name and album title emblazoned above the proclamation). But where the Manics were defiantly intellectual (and often quite odd) beneath that veneer, Hard-Fi on this uneven sophomore album are nothing more than average guys unhappy with their lot in life, so they strike out against whatever targets are at hand, from their hometown to the war on terror, which seem to bother them equally if their even-handed delivery is to be trusted. Perhaps all this misdirected fury and noise is an appropriate soundtrack to 2007, but Hard-Fi would have been better off if they had truly learned from the Clash and railed against the modern world instead of merely reflecting it. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 7 Title: iTunes Festival: London 2011 Released: 2011-07-19 Tracks: 6 Duration: 23:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Good for Nothing (04:08) 2 Love Song (03:18) 3 Suburban Knights (04:00) 4 Move On Now (03:45) 5 Fire in the House (04:12) 6 Give It Up (04:32) |
 | Album: 6 of 7 Title: Killer Sounds Released: 2011-08-19 Tracks: 15 Duration: 55:40 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Good for Nothing (03:49) 2 Fire in the House (04:13) 3 Give It Up (04:35) 4 Bring It On (04:00) 5 Feels Good (03:55) 6 Stop (03:43) 7 Stay Alive (03:43) 8 Excitement (03:37) 9 Love Song (03:12) 10 Sweat (03:24) 11 Killer Sounds (03:34) 12 Like a Drug (03:40) 13 Happy (03:11) 14 Second Line Style (03:43) 15 Sweat (Greg Kurstin mix) (03:21) |
 | Album: 7 of 7 Title: Best of 2004-2014 Released: 2014-01-27 Tracks: 19 Duration: 1:18:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Cash Machine (03:44) 2 Tied Up Too Tight (04:50) 3 Hard to Beat (04:15) 4 Living for the Weekend (03:44) 5 Better Do Better (04:38) 6 Stars of CCTV (03:59) 7 Move on Now (05:10) 8 You and Me (03:49) 9 Suburban Knights (04:31) 10 Cant Get Along (Without You) (03:00) 11 I Shall Overcome (Fist Full of Dollars mix) (05:49) 12 Tonight (03:57) 13 Good for Nothing (03:49) 14 Fire in the House (04:13) 15 Bring It On (03:40) 16 Give It Up (04:36) 17 Like a Drug (03:40) 18 Move Over (03:23) 19 Hard to Beat (Axwell mix radio edit) (03:51) |