Archive for August, 2011

In what has been (for me) a quiet July of new releases, the end of the month brought me something to latch on to and it came from a band that has continued to climb into the category of “my favorite bands” in the past couple years. Wild Beasts released Smother back in May during a period that saw new albums from a lot of good bands (Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Cults, Death Cab, Hooray For Earth, Bon Iver, Man Man, My Morning Jacket, The Antlers, and Son Lux) all come out in a month or so span. So suffice to say, I was overwhelmed with new music.

But Smother shined right through the rest of them (it failed to be….smothered? ahah, jokesss). Smother sees Wild Beasts take a huge step forward in a subtle way. They have refined their sound and continued the progression that their last album, Two Dancers, achieved. Lead singer Hayden Thorpe has matured his vocals into the perfect balance of intensity and grace. He leads the listener gently up and up in his falsetto until his voice breaks and we slide the slippery-slope back into his baritone. Like a sweet reduction in the kitchen, Smother is the boiled down progression of a band that has brilliantly come into their own.

Speaking to NPR about his favorite song off the album, “Loop the Loop” (streaming below), Thorpe describes it as a “crystallization” of what they have “been trying to write for ten years.” He continues, “And there’s lots of ghost notes — by ghost notes I mean almost imaginary parts. Sometimes when you’re recording a song it just hangs together in an effortless way.” “Loop the Loop” is three dimensional in the way only really well crafted songs can be, and it stands as a perfect indicator of the quality of Smother.

 Wild Beasts – “Loop the Loop”

Just recently they released the second single off of Smother, ”Bed of Nails” (also a beautiful song) that came with an unreleased B-side titled: “Catherine Wheel”. “Catherine Wheel” was an exciting new track for me because it took a slight step into the past. It’s dark and carnal in a way that wasn’t fully developed on Smother but is a part of how I fell in love with the band in the past. Thorpe’s voice embraces the seductive, sensual, erotic vibe it once exuded and the lyrics match the subject matter that their first album Limbo, Panto was full of (see songs “His Grinning Skull” or “She Purred While I Grrred”).

“Catherine Wheel” is streaming below and Smother is out now on Domino Records. Wild Beasts are touring this fall so catch them if you can, you won’t be disappointed.

 Wild Beasts – “Catherine Wheel”