Leave it to bona fide rock stars to see the world unlike the rest of us. The Getaway EP is a four song appetizer from the southeast Londoner's highly-anticipated Black Swan long-player, which slated for release in early 2010. The concept, drawn from writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb's tome of the same name, goes like this: for almost 1,500 years, Europeans used the supposedly mythical black swan as a metaphor for something which could not exist. In the late 17th Century an explorer actually spotted one, which blew that theory. So Taleb somehow worked it into a libretto which Athlete's lead man Joel Pott translates as life being a series of abrupt upheavals, highs and lows, good and bad - which directly relates to the band members personal lives in the last few years. Soap operas aside, this sweeping, sentimental collection takes adversity and turns in into triumph by way of anthemic melodies, quasi-orchestral arrangements, and simple yet grand statements. The motifs which underpin the title track, "Wild Wolves," an acoustic rendition of "Black Swan," and "Superhuman Touch" may seem vaguely familiar, but Athlete gives it all a fresh coat of paint. Highly recommended for fans of the softer side of the Flaming Lips, The Doves, and Badly Drawn Boy.
--Tom Semioli [October 27, 2009]
