Noah and the Whale

Got Noah and the Whale's first album recently. This band appears to be evolving into another Death Cab knockoff, so I carefully selected "Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down" as my starting sample point.

This is one of the better structured albums I have run into in a while. Ebbs and flows quite nicely. Not perfect (gets a bit squirrely at the end), but still pretty good. As far as I am concerned, the best album rather than collection of song's is Badly Drawn Boy's - Hour of Bewilderbeast.

The first few tracks are so upbeat they just make you happy to be alive. Don't get me wrong, the subject matter might not be the happiest, but sometimes its just a feel... The video for Shape of My Heart says it all:



This track has heavy Beatles circa Sgt Pepper's overtones but keeps enough of a respectful distance to call it their own. Two Atoms in a Molecule reminds me (strangely) of Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers pt 1," but they are nothing alike. I also dig "Rocks and Daggers" for its country shuffle beats and backing vocals.

Speaking of which, I absolutely love Laura Marling's voice. She should be more prominently used or do her own stuff... Oh wait... She does. Disappointingly though, her most recent album sounds like Mumford and Sons (she was apparently dating the singer from this band for a while). Don't get me wrong, Mumford is a band I like, I just liked them better when they were Mumford and Sons. Give her time, she's young... eventually she'll find her own sound... but I digress...

The track on this album that really hit it for them is 5 years time. It's a pretty catchy poppy track so I can see why it got them noticed. Fun Wes Anderson style vid too... Although if you listen to the words, its almost sugary enough to give a man diabetes.

If I were looking for something new I would definately pick up this album.