Tear the Signs Downs
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
AltSounds	(77%)
BBC	(negative)
contactmusic.com	(favorable)
Kerrang!
musicOMH
NME	(5/10)
Rock Sound	(9/10)
The Skinny
Sputnik Music

Tear the Signs Down is the third album by Wales-based band The Automatic. It was released on 8 March 2010 in the United Kingdom, and then on 12 April 2010 for the rest of the world. Tear the Signs Down was the first album released by the band on their own Armoured Records after being splitting with B-Unique. The first single "Interstate" was released on 6 December, with second single "Run & Hide" released a week prior to the album itself on 1 March 2010. Third single Cannot Be Saved was released on 20 June 2010.

After record labels B-Unique and Polydor failed to release previous album This Is A Fix on time, or promote it due to the two labels reportedly falling out the band made the decision to end their 5-album deal. After offers from various record labels the band ultimately decided to set up their own record label Armoured Records giving the band complete creative control, yet the ability to reach a mass audience with EMI contracted to distribute the album. After a final tour in November 2008 the band returned to the studio, only 4 months after the release of their album This Is A Fix.

Throughout the rest of 2008, and up until November 2009 the band worked from their Cardiff recording studio on new material, working on around some 20 ideas, which were eventually reduced too 11 album tracks and a currently unknown amount of b-sides. After the writing and demoing stage, the band worked with Richard Jackson, who produced a number of tracks on both previous records Not Accepted Anywhere and This Is A Fix, describing working with Richard as him 'almost being the fifth member of The Automatic.' The album was eventually recorded with Richard Jackson and Stephen Davies at Warwick Hall Studios in Cardiff, and later mixed at Buffalo Studios and Machine Rooms in Cardiff. In the studio the band worked with Nathan Stone and Carly Worsfold on tracks "Run & Hide" and "High Time", who provided string sections.

In an interview with Bedfordshire on Sunday vocalist & bassist Rob Hawkins summarised the lyrical construction of all three albums by The Automatic; with Not Accepted Anywhere being about personal experiences and growing up, This Is A Fix was largely based around news and world events, whilst Tear the Signs Down is more about story telling. Lyrically Tear the Signs Down is far more focused as opposed to This Is A Fix according to Paul Mullen. The lyrics themselves are mostly all written by Rob Hawkins and Paul Mullen, however Iwan Griffiths and James Frost also had an input if a lyric didn't sit right with all four band mates.

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