The band name AWOLNATION brings to mind a sort of general misguided teenage rage at the state of world, as if the band are out to say “Argh! Society has gone AWOL – it’s rubbish!”. However, ‘Not Your Fault’ does not follow such important themes of changing society, it rather settles on being a standard pop tune based around love.
As far as songs go, it’s got a bit of everything: nice singing bits, shouty singing bits, synths, heavy guitars and even a One Direction-esque “Na na na” refrain. It results in an upbeat, busy sounding song that fails to ignite. To elaborate, I refuse to classify a song that rhymes ‘ammo’ with ‘shadow’ as an instant classic.
The song’s saving grace is undoubtedly its chorus, which sticks in the mind as the rest of the song disappears into anonymity. Just remember “Baby ’cause I’m crazy for you/It’s not your fault”, foregrounding the idea that if someone is obsessed with you then you can be terrible to them and they won’t blame you, which is nice.
It’s not a bad song, but when its home is an album titled Megalithic Symphony one cannot help but expect something a little less middle-of-the-road and a bit more ‘Megalithic’, which I assume means ‘really big’.
