Altsounds - Billy Talent - Devil On My Shoulder [Single]

Now I am usually a fan of Billy Talent’s music, they have got quality guitar riffs, jazzy basslines and more often than not nice vocal melodies but something wasn't quite right and I just wasn’t feeling it with 'Devil On My Shoulder'.

I found myself wanting to like 'Devil On My Shoulder' while I was listening to it but at the same time I couldn’t pull myself to agree that it was, in fact, a good song. Billy Talent have been around for a few years now and have made some good records, but 'Devil On My Shoulder' has got nothing on previous tracks like the infectious ‘Try Honestly’ or previous crowd anthems like ‘Red Flag’. Some good points in 'Devil On My Shoulder' is that musically it’s really good. Guitarist Ian D’Sa has written a corker of a riff in the intro, one which I am in the process of working out so that I can play it myself! Lyrically it’s OK and seems to be pretty standard Billy Talent fare.

I suppose if you’re a big fan of Billy Talent you’ll like 'Devil On My Shoulder' but, if you’ve never listened to Billy Talent before then I wouldn’t start here as 'Devil On My Shoulder' is not the best example of Billy Talent’s work. Have a listen to ‘The Ex’, ‘Try Honestly’ and ‘Red Flag’ before you make your judgement on Billy Talent and their associated music. Another thing which "really grinds my gears" about Billy Talent is how unimaginative they are with their album titles, I mean Billy Talent I, Billy Talent II and Billy Talent III are quite possibly the laziest album titles in history although they are more than likely tipping their hats to the legends that are Led Zeppelin.

Billy Talent could have done a lot better with 'Devil On My Shoulder'. With such a good intro it had potential to be a really good track but in the end it just fizzled out instead of exploding. 'Devil on My Shoulder' won’t really benefit anyone except die hard Billy Talent fans and I personally wouldn’t buy it. 'Devil On My Shoulder' is taken off Billy Talent’s third album Billy Talent III which is out now. 'Devil On My Shoulder' is due for release on September 11 2009.