Album Review: Wild Beasts - Present Tense

Album Rating: A-

Much of the run-up to Wild Beasts' fourth LP has centered around lead track 'Wanderlust,' and in particular Hayden Thorpe's provocative query "in your mother tongue / what's the verb to suck?" A thinly veiled swipe at musicians who decline to sing in their own accents, it's especially apt coming from a man whose flamboyant delivery epitomises his group's teeter between the sublime and the ridiculous - although it must be said that balance is tipping further towards the former with every album Kendel's finest release. Indeed, whereas literate defiance and unbridled eccentricity were once the order of the day, the quartet's craft now settles into a groove of slow burn and deep subtlety; an approach very nearly perfected on 2011's sensational Smother, and now pushed to even greater extremes on this colourful follow-up.

A Year In Retrospect: The Musical Themes Which Have Shaped 2011

When I first set about writing this article, the vision I had was simple; a concise, coherent and informative summary of the past year in music without disappearing up my own backside or boring any unfortunate readers into submission. Alas, by the time I'd discarded my sixth draft, I began to accept that it wasn't possible, and so this long-winded, cobbled together mess was born - precisely the opposite of what I'd aimed to achieve! No one's reading this for the intro, so, without further ado, I present my 2011 retrospective, based around some of the major themes which have shaped the year in music...

Album Review: Wild Beasts - Smother

July and August are notoriously sparse when it comes to new music releases, so at this time of year I often find myself returning to the best that the year has thus far had to offer. Usually I spend this period deciding upon my favourites, but this year’s ritualistic jaunt brought no such problem, as there’s one album that stands out head and shoulders above the rest. Hailing from Cumbria, Wild Beasts have spent the past eight or so years playing their own unique and impassioned brand of indie rock. It’s a formula that’s yielded impressive results on the band’s first two critically acclaimed efforts, but even with that background Smother is a huge step up in every sense, and should see its creators recognised as one of the best bands that our island has to offer.