Noah and the Whale ‘Heart of Nowhere’ – Review
15 MayNoah and the Whale ‘Last Night on Earth’ – Review
11 MarBob Dylan made the ultimate break up album with ‘Blood on the Tracks’, but for his next album he made a radical change, releasing ‘Desire’, a collection of strange stories set to exotic and ambitious music. He worked on the lyrics with a collaborator for the first time and for most of the album he managed to sing about anything but his divorce. I mention this as ‘Desire’ set the benchmark for the post break up album, album. Since then it’s been fairly common for bands to follow-up their ‘Blood on the Tracks’ with something completely unrelated to broken hearts and that is exactly what Noah and the Whale have done with ‘Last Night on Earth’.
Like ‘Desire’, ‘Last Night on Earth’ ditches the introspective honesty for songs that tell stories; stories about disillusioned slags, hopeful teenagers and lots of people on the run. Perhaps most tellingly there is a sense of starting over, forgetting about the past and remembering that life goes on (as one of the song titles reminds us). Bruce Springstein and Tom Petty have obviously been huge influences on the lyrical style of the album, and musically as well Noah and the Whale borrow some of that wide eyed American ambition. Gospel singers add colour to many of these songs and instrumentally there is a lot going on, which is a turn around from the quiet subtilty of ‘First Days of Spring’, their last album.
And what an album that was, one of my favourites of 2009. It’s obvious from fairly early on that ‘Last Night on Earth’ can’t match that record simply because it’s too calculated and objectively distant. The stories are interesting but they are not heart tugging; this time Fink plays the role of journalist rather than diarist. The music hits all the right spots but I get the sense that It’s been done before and it’s been done better. It doesn’t help that the production feels very cheep; the band have played mainly acoustically in the past and the change to synths and drum machines clearly doesn’t sound entirely like a comfortable fit.
Still, turn a blind eye to some trite lyrics here and some cheesy production there and it’s incredibly easy to like this album because the songs are so damn catchy and uplifting. ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’ has alright been A-listed on Radio 1 and it’s not hard to see why, listening to it makes me think summer has come months early. ‘Waiting For My Chance to Come’, ‘Life is Life’ and ‘Tonight Could be the Night’ are some more cheery numbers that remind me of ‘Tea for the Tillerman’ era Cat Stevens. The best songs however are the ones that stick more closely to what Noah and the Whale do best; downbeat melancholy. Not that these songs are miserable in the same was that ‘First Day’s of Spring’s darker songs were but ‘Old Joy’ and ‘Wild Thing’ have a knowing sadness that reminds me of that album. But even these songs are tinged with hope and overall it’s hard to think of a more upbeat album than ‘Last Night on Earth’, which I never thought I’d say about a band who only last year were the dreariest group at any festival.
Following an album as well received as ‘First Days of Spring’ was always going to be tricky; it would have been very easy for them to make a copy cat album, or easier still to return to the nu-folk of their debut, especially as Mumford and Sons continue to have amazing (and rather head scratching) success. Along with Mystery Jets, The Horrors and Arctic Monkeys, Noah and the Whale have proven to be one of the most unpredictable and consistently imaginative UK acts of the last decade. I have no idea where they will go next but you can be fairly certain that it will be somewhere new and exciting.
7.5/10
Noah and The Whale ‘First Days of Spring’ – Review
4 SepNoah and The Whale’s debut album (‘peaceful the world lays me down’) may not have set anyone’s world on fire but it had it’s moments. Take for example ‘5 Years Time,’ a song it was impossible to escape last summer. This one hit aside the album had no real songs of note, which is why I was happily surprised to find that their new record, ‘First days of Spring’, is fantastic.
‘First Days of Spring’ is a surprisingly old fashioned album by an old fashioned band. It is a concept album about a break up (no wait, come back!), with the singer going through all the stages associated with heartbreak. The album begins at the end of the story, with the singer stating ‘my life is starting over…like a cut down tree, I will rise again’. After this we go back to the start to hear about the misery, the sadness and the songs are suitably mellow and emotional. We hear of him trying to forget the girl (‘This is the last song that I write while still in love with you’) before ultimately moving on in the album’s highlight ‘Blue Skies’ then finally accepting that his door is ‘always open’ on the album closer. In between there are two over the top instrumentals instrumentals and more songs about regret than you can shake a stick at.
If any of this sounds cliched that’s because it is; yet it works throughout and somehow manages to seem consistantly fresh and intresting. The harmonies are rich and claer, the melodies bitter sweet and acomplished and the lyrics are constantly rewarding. He declares at the beggining that this is an album ‘for anyone with a broken heart’ which would go to say most of us, and because of this universal theme the album feels personal and touching. Names are never given and a thin layer of fog surrounds the songs so that it is easy to input your own life story throughout. The instrumentation, as on their debut, is always unique and different (such as the church bells on one instrumental and numerous strange sounds throughout), it is largely acoustic but can turn orchestral or electric when it is called for. Though the theme of the record has been used to death in pop music, it works so well here because it is accompanied by heartfelt vocals and unique instrumentaion. It is just perfectly produced.
‘First Day’s of Spring’ is a wondefully ambitious, yet old fashioned album that works precisly because it is so well made, and despite the fact it shouldn’t. I can’t think of a more sincere and heartmelting British record this year, and it may well transform Noah and The Whale into one of Britain’s premier bands.
8.5/10