Wind-Up Toys

Capdown expand to a five-piece with the addition of a full-time keyboardist and programmer on their third album, but there's otherwise frustratingly little difference between Wind-Up Toys and its predecessors. Fusing ska, punk, and metal into an improbable but energetic mash-up of aggressive vocals, hyperactive drumming, and heavy unison guitar and bass riffing with stridently political lyrics and occasional Lora Logic-style saxophone blurts, Capdown have defined their sound by now. However, although great fist in the air songs like the anthemic closer "Home Is Where the Start Is" and the striking first single "Keeping Up Appearances" bring together everything that makes Capdown what they are as well as any of their previous tracks, there's a sense of creative stasis on Wind-Up Toys. The way in which the keyboards and samples are somewhat haphazardly jammed onto the beginnings and ends of songs, as noisy intros and atmospheric codas, only accentuates how poorly the band have integrated their new member (Eddie, who like all the bandmembers, eschews the use of his surname) into what is in danger of becoming a pro-forma sound. For a band whose lyrics tend to be in favor of the concept of social revolution, the lack of musical growth and progress doesn't speak well of their belief; Wind-Up Toys will certainly please fans, but a bigger sense of musical exploration would do them a world of good.