Music Review

Blue Lights on the Runway (2009)

EW's GRADE
C+

Details Release Date: Mar 03, 2009; Lead Performance: Bell X1; Genre: Rock

The best song on this Irish outfit's fourth disc is a pitch-perfect Talking Heads impression called ''The Great Defector,'' which may or may not have been inspired by Bell X1's own great defector, Damien Rice. (Before he split to pursue a solo career, Rice played with these guys as Juniper.) The rest of Blue Lights on the Runway is duller than that highlight; most of it sounds like warmed-over Coldplay, a commodity in no short supply among earnest U.K. indie types. Pity they didn't catch a more serious case of that band's Experimental Fourth Album Syndrome. C+

Download This: Listen to the song ''The Great Defector'' on the band's MySpace

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Originally posted Feb 25, 2009 Published in issue #1037 Mar 06, 2009 Order article reprints

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