Driven Far Off

Ilan Rubin, currently the drummer for the Lostprophets, has just released The New Regime album, “Coup.” However, Rubin is the only one involved in any musical aspect of the album. Every sound you hear on this album-the guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, harmonies, vocals and anything else you can find, is all performed by Rubin. In addition to being involved with The Lostprophets and The New Regime, Rubin will fill the drumming position for Nine Inch Nails starting next year sometime. Did I mention he is only 19?! Now back to The New Regime’s album, “Coup.”

“The Collapse” is the opening track to this record starting off with some heavy, dark piano riffs and drumming. The chorus explodes into loud vocals and steady guitar rhythms and I must say, I am very impressed with Rubin’s voice throughout the whole song. This song goes back and forth between a very dark feel and a very upbeat, typical rock ballad which I enjoyed for the most part.

The next song, “Order Restored,” starts off similar to “The Collapse” with a dark opening accompanied by keyboards. This song is probably my favorite in terms of Rubin’s vocals and the overall melody. After listening to this song, it reminded me of songs off of Cursive’s “Domestica” album with similar vocals and rhythms. “Order Restored” is easily one of the best songs on the album and it really displays all the talent that Rubin possess musically between the vocals, guitars and drumming.

As the album progresses, The New Regime takes a step back from the dark, heavy mood seen in the first few songs and heads towards a more traditional rock style. This is seen in the song “Take Control” which features a catchy verse and once again, the loud explosive choruses that Rubin likes to present. If you are looking for a song similar to Rubin’s work with the Lostprophets, “Take Control” seems to be one of the few songs on the album that sound somewhat similar to his work with the Lostprophets.

“Haunt My Mind” starts off like the first two songs-a dark keyboard riff with background drumming. Once again, Rubin diverts back to the dark instrumentals that most of the album displays. The lead guitar riff toward the end of the song really showed a change of pace from the songs heard on this album and I wish Rubin incorporated similar guitar riffs to change up the songs a bit. One thing I noticed about a lot of these songs was a lot of repetition which got tiring after a few listens.

Straying away from keyboards and loud instrumentals, Rubin slows down the album with the acoustic song, “The Credit “WE” Deserve.” The opening acoustic guitar is really enjoyable and sets a different tone from the entire album. Rubin’s vocals sound spot on throughout this whole song. “The Credit “WE” Deserve” shows a different side of The New Regime and I don’t recommend that you skip over this song because Rubin really does deserve a lot of credit for this song-easily one of my favorites on this record.

“Tap Dancing in A Minefield” shows a completely different side to The New Regime. It features a very fast upbeat guitar riff heard throughout most of the song. The chorus, once again, features loud instrumentals and loud vocals. The ending of this song displays some really great guitar playing which I find amazing considering that Rubin’s main instrument are the drums. I really liked the direction that Rubin took this song-more upbeat and catchy than a majority of the songs on this album.

“Coup” features a wide variety of songs. The album starts off with slow, dark songs and progresses into more catchy, upbeat rock songs. The fact that Rubin is able to switch back and forth between two different styles ultimately shows his talent as a musician. I would of enjoyed this album more if there were some more diversity within the songs. I felt like there was a lot of repetition and some of the songs got boring about half way through. Lastly, “Coup” takes a step back from the over produced crappy albums that so many artists put out. Rubin doesn’t stick to only one tone through out the whole album which most artists fail to do. Overall, “Coup” is a very solid album featuring excellent instrumentals and vocals all from one man: Ilan Rubin.

Track Listing
1. The Collapse
2. Order Restored
3. All These Changes
4. Take Control
5. Time Erase
6. Haunt My Mind
7. This War Time
8. The Credit “We” Deserve
9. Tap Dancing In A Minefield
10. Somethings