Noah and the Whale – Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down Review
These days, a certain sound or production style will spread like wildfire until every new release is a copy of a copy of a copy. The more music we have access to, the more we seem to choose the same band over and over – photocopies, if you will.
Noah and the Whale’s Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down succumbs to this universal blandness – no fault to the band or its too-cute-for-words collection of eleven songs. Based in Twickenham, London and formed in 2006, they can boast Laura Marling and Emmy the Great as former members.
The boys gallop out of the gates with the rambunctious, toe-tapping “2 Atoms in a Molecule” which features glowing harmonies and engaging lyrics like “last night I had a dream we were inseparably entwined / like a piece of rope made out of two pieces of vine” and “if love is just a game / how come it is no fun?” “Jocasta” welcomes Tom Hobden’s fiddle into the mix, matched with the percussive “mechanics of a dream”. A catchy hand-clap rhythm makes “Shape of My Heart” the most singalong-prone of all the tracks, combined with life-affirming horns and the added bonus of Marling’s sophisticated backing vocals.
Charlie Fink’s voice cracks like a teenage boy’s on “Rocks and Daggers” and the title track. While his range is questionable, his lyrical content makes up for all that: “all is fleeting / yeah, but all is good / and my love is my whole being”. The clock ticking at the start of “Second Lover” is spine-tingling, and xylophone paired with a longing and haunting vocal works wonders. The romantic “Mary” memorializes a girl who “lied and said it was her birthday” with a lush chorus of harmonized voices and the taste of regret.
Slowing things down with “Do What You Do”, the band makes use of a simplified arrangement, emphasizing themes of beginnings and endings, life and death (“my bones were made in the womb and now the brains are leaving my tomb”). Also dirge-like, “Hold My Hand as I’m Lowered” is essential listening for a rainy winter night, covered in blankets, the room spinning, whereas “5 Years Time” is what you might play in your car on a summer road trip, singing obnoxiously out open windows. In my opinion, the song sounds too much like a commercial for orange juice.
“Give a Little Love” is a song like a thunderstorm. With a strong message well-supported by piano and handclaps, it ends up being one of the most memorable songs included.
Pre-Travis and The Magic Numbers, Noah and the Whale might have sounded fresh. There are many waves to conquer if they wish to keep afloat in an ever-growing sea of twee folk bands.
MP3:
Noah and the Whale – Jocasta
Tags: album
