The New Regime: Coup

It’s relatively often that certain band members will divert their main attention away for a while to make a solo album. Usually straying from the confinements of their primary bands sound and allowing their own ideas to take centre-stage, the solo attempt is a risky but often rewarding idea.

The New Regime is Lostprophets current (but not for long) drummer Ilan Rubin. As of 2009 Rubin is officially Nine Inch Nails property and will quit Prophets for good. A good move yes, but for Rubin or NIN? It’s a bold move to say the least.

This album however, came to fruition during some Prophets downtime, manifesting from eight song ideas into a ten track, forty two minute full on release. Coup is definitely something different. At times it’s a giant, sweeping epic affair akin to Muse and company but at the other end of the spectrum it’s too confused, too frivolous and ends up throwing away promising tracks with an empty, dead stare. Rubin is talented, no doubt – drum lessons from Travis Barker himself and the guy's only 20 – but this seems like too much of an effort to show off to the world. “Hey Ma! Look what I done did!”

It’s impressive work when you look at it from the perspective of Rubin himself. He’s just one guy and the album is a pretty big monster. From classical piano to his usual percussional talents, it’s not like the album isn’t an impressive piece of solo work, it is, it just cries to be better at every corner. Take away the cheesy unneeded break downs, stop attempting to reach the pretentious heights of Matt Bellamy and concentrate more on the fun side of music. Everything’s too serious, too desperate to impress, too anxious to display all of his talents at once and all the time.

The Credit We Deserve is a quieter affair but still somehow manages to sink in-between the lines. It’s also here that we discover that Rubin doesn’t exactly sing well either. Underneath all of the previous theatrics the vocals sort of floated along on their zephyr so it’s disappointing to hear him struggle on a lighter track.

Convolution is often the problem with solo attempts and this is the shining personification of those very words. Complexity is rewarding when done correctly, not when the artist is forcing it down your throat/into your ears/up your nostrils/straight up the rear/however you prefer digesting music.

Coup is a disappointingly interesting album with promise hidden under pretence. In a nutshell, you’ll enjoy it if you like coffee, the stock market, specifically designed leather suitcases and pre WW1 wine at room temperature. Oh, and rock music.