WILD BEASTS are a fabulously new-sounding addition to the national canvas. From the bitter-sweet-shock of Hayden Norman Thorpe's broken alto voice to the jazz wonderlands of Benny Little's guitar, they're some kind of doo-wop, indie evocation of very early Factory and Postcard experimentalism. They're lush, complex and very sexy. I reckon I can hear the lyrical and melodic breath of Morrissey and echoes of the pulsing band sound of Johnny Marr. There so many other things going on though and every listener will catch a hint of something they've heard and loved. So it is with truly novel artists. It takes us a while to learn to hear them as themselves.
A-Side "BRAVE BULGING BUOYANT CLAIRVOYANTS" is a pumped up dance tune that seems to sing of something that dare not speak it’s name. The lovely resonant sound has a live, all-done-at-once integrity. It’s immediate, sophisticated and, damn it, very very different. The band harmonies in the last section are a glorious turn of mood, romanticising the song, but never breaking the rhythmic drive.
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B-side "OLD DOG" is a nice foil. Gentler, more lounge-ballad, with an ambiguous leer and Hayden swerving from Antony and the Johnsons to Jeff Buckley and back again. There's a second vocal line from Tom Flemming that any other band would die to have as the main vocal.
I haven’t heard a better single this year. An astonishng debut.
www.wild-beasts.co.uk
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