Gun – Frantic (2015) Review

After the restorative purpose of Break The Silence, Frantic is a frustrating step sideways.

The band had spent years clawing their way back towards the sound that suited them best, only to start sanding the edges off again almost immediately.

It never sinks to the level of 0141 632 6326 — the songwriting is stronger, Dante Gizzi delivers a committed performance, and there are several genuinely good tracks here.

However, the instinct behind some of the decisions feels worryingly familiar.

The band’s famous wall of guitars has been pushed further back in the mix, pop influence has been afforded far too much room, and a fistful of potentially great songs are softened at the exact point where Gun should have been leaning into their biggest strengths.

Riding The Wave

Few people expected Gun to set the world alight when they returned in 2012.

Talismanic frontman Mark Rankin had declined the invitation to reunite, Toby Jepson’s brief spell had already fizzled out, and Dante Gizzi’s decision to move from bass to lead vocals looked like a last throw of the dice.

Then Break The Silence happened.

While it didn’t trouble the mainstream charts, it reminded listeners that Gun could still make a very good rock record.

Riding the wave, they began the process of rebuilding their audience. A well-received appearance at Download Festival followed, and by the time work began on their sixth studio album, expectations were noticeably higher.

They also had a new label behind them. Axeman Giuliano Gizzi spoke openly at the time about the potential for radio play, and how impressed he had been by what Caroline/UMG had achieved with Simple Minds.

All of this ambition made sense.

Unfortunately, Frantic occasionally sounds like somebody took the radio part a little too seriously.

One Wrong Turn Too Many

Sadly, Frantic doesn’t build on the momentum created by Break The Silence so much as soften it.

Where its predecessor had leaned confidently into modern hard rock, this follow-up dresses much of its material in a cleaner, more pop-oriented sheen.

It’s easy to see why they thought this was the right move — there are plenty of radio-friendly hooks here — but the trade-off is that too much of Gun’s natural bite gets polished away in the process.

Opening track Let It Shine makes the problem obvious. Beneath the gospel-choir introduction and strangely timid guitar hook sits a genuinely strong chorus, yet the arrangement never gives it the weight it deserves.

The same pattern appears on Labour Of Life, where another uplifting anthem is undermined by a formulaic framework. And when the songwriting doesn’t supply a chorus that’s strong enough to overcome the gloss — as on Beautiful Smile — the track becomes a slog.

As the album wears on, this lack of muscle becomes a recurring frustration.

Their previous record showed us that the Scottish rockers’ knack for penning memorable guitar hooks still exists, but Frantic buries it beneath multiple layers of backing vocals, horns and jangly textures, severely blunting the intended impact.

The result is a record that doesn’t sound like Gun revived, but instead Gun restrained.

What Still Works

For all of Frantic’s frustrations, there are still moments where Gun get the balance right.

The clearest example is Seraphina.

Longtime fans may recognise the song from the Popkiller EP, recorded during the band’s aborted 2009 comeback, but this version is light-years better. Dante Gizzi sounds far more assured, his raspier vocal twisting through the verses with real confidence, while the guitars are finally allowed enough room to make their presence felt.

That same spark appears elsewhere.

Big City turns its attention towards the band’s Glasgow roots, Hold Your Head Up delivers a delightful singalong chorus, and the title track makes good use of a simple hook without overcomplicating the job.

Then there’s One Wrong Turn, arguably the strongest song on the record.

Built around another enormous chorus, it tackles male mental health with a degree of honesty that avoids the usual clichés. There’s nothing especially elaborate about it, but that works in its favour — the lyric is direct, the melody does the heavy lifting, and the band sound far more comfortable than they do on the album’s more heavily polished moments.

Those songs are the reason Frantic remains frustrating rather than outright disappointing. The ingredients are clearly still there; the band just don’t trust their instincts often enough.

The expanded edition — imaginatively titled More Frantic — added another worthwhile moment with a cover of the Hot Chocolate classic Every 1’s A Winner. It suits Gun surprisingly well, and later earned the band some welcome exposure through its association with the movie I, Tonya.

"I've built up my resistance to things a man shouldn't feel."

One Wrong Turn

The Ghost Of Days Gone By

What saves Frantic from becoming a repeat of Gun’s disastrous late-’90s pop detour is the quality of the songwriting underneath it all.

The hooks are still there.

The choruses are still there.

And when the production gets out of the way, the band still sound capable of delivering the kind of punchy, melodic rock that made Break The Silence such a convincing return.

Unfortunately, the band continuously forego their biggest strengths in favour of a glossy, pop-leaning mix that softens the songs and dilutes their impact. When compared against the focused bite of its predecessor, Frantic feels like a band second-guessing themselves in the hopes of achieving chart success.

It never becomes as disappointing as 0141, but it gets close enough to make the comparison uncomfortable.

Gun: Frantic

Frantic doesn’t live up to its predecessor.

Seraphina, Big City, One Wrong Turn and Hold Your Head Up show exactly what this version of Gun can do, but too much of the surrounding material feels like the band reaching towards radio at the expense of the thing that got them here in the first place.

The pop gamble didn’t exactly pay off commercially, either; it peaked at No.50 on the UK Albums Chart, although it performed considerably better in Scotland, where it reached No.5.

That leaves it in an awkward place:

Too good to dismiss, but too flawed to love — and uncomfortably close to a mistake Gun swore they’d never make again.