Music for the People is the second studio album by Coventry-based indie rock band The Enemy, which was released 27 April 2009. It entered the UK charts at number two, losing out on the number one spot to Bob Dylan's Together Through Life.
Background and recording
Following a short break, the trio spent the majority of autumn 2008 recording in rural Wales at Monnow Valley Studio in South Wales with producer Jim Anderson and Mike Crossey. Whilst the plan was to capitalise on the buzz from their debut, the band didn't rush the sessions. "We totally took our time," Clarke stated. In early 2009, The Enemy completed the recording of the album. On their official MySpace blog, the band described the album as a "big step forward", deciding to "go back to basics with the recording and do it all on tape rather than computers which is how the vast majority of modern records are made, and as a result it sounds huge, like a proper old school rock record". They also described the album as having a more "raw and punkier sound", whilst Clarke noted that, although he was aiming to address various issues with the album's lyrics, the band took a less organised approach in writing them; The lead single, "No Time For Tears", was debuted on BBC Radio 1 on 17 February 2009, including an interview with the band discussing tour dates and their "new sound". The single was officially released on 13 April, with the album following a fortnight later on 27 April. As part of the promotion for the album, the band played a number of gigs in small, intimate venues throughout February 2009, in Lincoln, York, Dundee, Wakefield, Tunbridge Wells and Corby. The video for the second single, "Sing When You're In Love", was debuted on T4 on 9 May 2009, and released on 22 June. The third single, "Be Somebody", was used as theme music for FIFA 10 by EA Sports and in ITV's FA Cup football coverage. It is played pre-match at the Ricoh Arena by Coventry City.
Critical reception
The album received mixed reviews scoring 4.5/10 at aggregator website AnyDecentMusic?, and 55/100 at Metacritic. John Earls of Planet Sound saw the LP as a progression from the band's debut album, but found fault with the lyrical content. The album was pilloried for its alleged plagiarism. Commenting on the opening track "Elephant Song", Drowned In Sound noticed its similarity to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir". "Last Goodbye" and its use of strings was compared to The Verve. The chorus of "Last Goodbye" also bears a striking resemblance to Blur's "The Universal". "Nation of Checkout Girls" was also derided for sounding identical to "Common People" by Pulp, while another song on their album "Don't Break The Red Tape" has also been criticised for sounding similar to "London Calling" by The Clash. The BBC described the album as "terrible", asking, "What did the people ever do to deserve this?" Drowned In Sound concluded: "Never has reaching the end of a record been met with such a massive sigh of relief." In The Independent, Andy Gill called the album's title "sinister...as if all other music were somehow against "the people" ; or as if the band's modest creations had been officially sanctioned as fit for our ears". He was sceptical of the album's political content, writing that "I'm instinctively suspicious about this kind of eagerly populist music, which invariably hides naked commercial ambitions behind a facade of oppositional posturing".
