The Temper Trap – Conditions (2009)

I saw The Temper Trap live even before they had released this first album of theirs. They played at this one-off festival in Helsinki, Pitkä Kuuma Kesä, early in the summer of 2009. They had a couple of songs on Spotify, which I liked, so I went to see their gig and they were even better live than what the songs sounded like on the album. I bought the album fairly soon when it was released. My interest for the band, however, faded quite soon afterwards. Even though the album has quite catchy songs and well-produced sounds, it becomes a bit boring after a while. The last nail in the coffin came when they released their second album. Around that time I would've had my second chance to see the band live, but after listening to the second album, I decided not to go. I feel like they made the classic mistake of going too electronic with their sounds and they lost their authenticity as a result.



My friend who I saw the gig in Helsinki with, around that time, was collecting photos of himself shaking hands with different people. Later in the day when we were watching some other band, the guys from The Temper Trap were standing next to us in the audience and my friend took a handshake picture with them. It seemed like the guys were genuinely surprised about the size of the event where they got to play before anyone really knew them. Also, the band is from Australia, so they were basically at the other side of the globe touring already before a single album, which is quite impressive.

The album starts with peaceful organ sounds and clapping in the song Love Lost. This is a good song to start the album with as it starts off quiet but grows bigger throughout the song. The chiming and echoey electric guitars are quite cool. Next up is Rest, which is quite typical indie rock song for the time when the album was released. It has post-rock-like sounds and pounding drum sounds with some high-pitched vocals that aren't really singing melodies but rather just quick spurts of vocals. Sweet Disposition was the big hit from this album, which made the band well-known around the world. I'm not surprised, since the fast guitar riff in the beginning with catchy vocal melody and the post-rock guitars later on make the song very appealing. Down River has some similarities to more lo-fi bands of the time, such as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and We Are Scientists. Soldier On is the first ballad on the album and I do really like this minimalist sound. I think the band would've been better off following this kind of path in their later albums. Fader is like a massive radio hit single. This is already a sign of where their career was going to go after this album. Music for stadiums rather than intimate and personal. Resurrection is a nice creepingly hypnotic song with slight psychedelia spices. Science of Fear is another huge song with some electronic effects in the background. It sounds a bit too plastic for my taste. The album ends with Drum Song, which true to its name starts with pounding tom drums and has some excellent echoey electric guitars on top. This kind of more alternative sound might've also worked for the band.

I'm linking the music video for Sweet Disposition here, because it was the biggest hit and I think I've even seen the music video before. There are some beautiful golden lights against a black background in the video and the band is playing in space in passing pictures. It's maybe not the most interesting video, but it's very well-made considering this was the debut album.

With the second album, they also released an acoustic album with acoustic versions of those songs on the second album. I thought that acoustic version was far superior to the actual album. I just usually like more authentic sounds over electronic ones.

The Temper Trap may stay in my books as a one album band, since I'm not expecting to like their new material, but it would be nice to be proven wrong.

Listen to the album on Spotify.