Killer Sounds
Studio album by
Hard-Fi
Released19 August 2011
Recorded2008–2011
GenreIndie rock, alternative rock, indie pop, pop rock
Length39:43
LabelNecessary / Warner
ProducerRichard Archer, Stuart Price, Alan Moulder, Greg Kurstin
Hard-Fi chronology
Once Upon a Time in December
(2007)		 Killer Sounds
(2011)
Singles from Killer Sounds
  1. "Good for Nothing"
    Released: 17 June 2011
  2. "Fire in the House"
    Released: 5 August 2011
  3. "Bring It On"
    Released: 24 October 2011

Killer Sounds is the third studio album by English indie rock band Hard-Fi. It was released on 19 August 2011 in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The iTunes bonus track "Like a Drug" was featured on the deluxe edition of the soundtrack of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.

Album information

In 2022, frontman Richard Archer told The Independent that the band were not in a great place when Killer Sounds came out: "[W]e probably got frustrated with each other. There was a point when it got really difficult towards the end. Everyone lost a bit of love for it, but we always stayed friends. Certainly for Steve [Kemp, drummer] and I, we'd been in bands that hadn't worked out and we were super focused on 'we can't fuck this up'. And I think at some point, that became to the detriment of the project and to us, our mental health, because we should have just enjoyed it. Everything had to be 'we've got to get this right'. Instead of just rolling with it we were worried about everything."[1]

Singles

  • "Good for Nothing" was released as the first single from the album on 17 June 2011 and debuted at number 51 on the UK Singles Chart.
  • "Fire in the House" was released as the second single on 5 August 2011 and debuted at number 170 on the UK Singles Chart.
  • "Bring It On" was released as the third single on 24 October 2011 subsequently failing to chart in the UK Singles Chart that week.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Metro[2]
The Guardian[3]
Financial Times[4]
NME[5]
The Observer[6]
The Independent[7]
The Daily Telegraph[8]

Upon its release, the album received mostly positive reviews from critics. The Metro gave it four out of five stars, saying: "Hard-Fi’s Killer Sounds features a collection of punchy potential hits on which a real sense of fun (and, dare we say it, camp) abounds."[2]

A negative review came from James Lachno in The Daily Telegraph who awarded the album one star out of five. He called it "moody" and "humourless" and said that the "sexualised lyrics sound seedy - or worse, menacing".[8]

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Archer.

No.TitleLength
1."Good for Nothing"3:51
2."Fire in the House"4:13
3."Give It Up"4:34
4."Bring It On"4:01
5."Feels Good"3:54
6."Stop"3:43
7."Stay Alive"3:44
8."Excitement"3:37
9."Love Song"3:12
10."Sweat"3:23
11."Killer Sounds"3:36
iTunes deluxe edition
No.TitleLength
12."Like a Drug"3:40
13."Happy"3:10
14."Second Line Style"3:43
15."Sweat" (Greg Kurstin Mix)3:21

[9]

Release history

Region Date Format Label
Ireland[10] 19 August 2011 Digital download Necessary Records
United Kingdom[11]
Canada[12] 15 March 2013
United States[12]

References

  1. ↑ Beaumont, Mark (1 October 2022). "Hard-Fi: 'It's like we went a bit to the left so the right went Nazi Germany'". The Independent. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Killer Sounds is an intense comeback for indie rock quartet Hard-Fi". Metro. 21 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Hard-Fi: Killer Sounds – review". The Guardian. 20 August 2011. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021.
  4. ↑ FT review
  5. ↑ NME review
  6. ↑ The Observer review
  7. ↑ The Independent review
  8. 1 2 "Hard Fi: Killer Sounds, CD review". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "Killer Sounds (Deluxe Version) by Hard-Fi". iTunes.
  10. ↑ "Killer Sounds by Hard-Fi – Download Killer Sounds on iTunes". iTunes.
  11. ↑ "Killer Sounds by Hard-Fi – Download Killer Sounds on iTunes". iTunes.
  12. 1 2 "Killer Sounds by Hard-Fi – Download Killer Sounds on iTunes". iTunes.
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