What does it sound like?:
‘Nothing is Ok, I’m going through a phase’
These days it must be very difficult being in a band. How high do you aim? What translates as success? These days, most indie bands would probably be happy with a top 20 single and a top 10 album, such is the way that ‘guitar-driven’ music has fallen out of favour. Still, no matter what you think, there is always something different – not necessarily new – to say when you’re in a band,
Neon Waltz are an indie-sextet, hailing from every long-distance charity cyclist’s favourite place in Scotland. Their debut album, ‘Strange Hymns’ was released on Friday, just in time for their non-appearance at Reading or Leeds. Its production duties are spread liberally between five different sets of people, including Mike Rowe and Howie Payne, presumably as a result of recording in different studios.
The album begins with a short interlude of haunted-rumbling (like ‘Down in the Tube Station’ walking through the Necropolis) before the opening notes of ‘Sundial’ burst into life. It is a strong track to introduce the album and the first thing that grabs your attention are Jordan Shearer’s vocals. The arrangement is concise and clear, and the band appear to be fond of the musical ‘drop-out’ if the follow up, ‘Dreamer’s is anything to go by. The tempo is slowed, and the quality quickly lowered with the predicable ‘Perfect Frame’ which along with ‘You and Me’ is arguably weakest track on the album.
A drum-roll and staccato guitar brings up back with ‘Bare Wood Aisles’ which is full of interesting musical ideas which never quite come off. Following on from the previously mentioned ‘You and Me’, ‘Sombre Fayre’ is forgetful, so I won’t write anything about it.
If we’re still in the business of predicting singles, I’d put money on ‘Bring Me To Light’ as being given an airing on the Radio 1 Chart Show in the near future (or past). That, and ‘Heavy Heartless’ which immediately follows are two of the strongest tracks on the album and resurrect a sagging middle.
We end finally, with ‘Folklore’ and ‘Veiled Clock’. Neither of which outstay their welcome, but the latter is a disappointment and anti-climax at the end of a gruelling thirty-six mintutes.
What does it all *mean*?
All in all, I liked four out of ten songs on the album. You of course, may have an entirely different opinion to me. This album wont see them break America, nor top any polls at the end of the year. But it will definitely pay the rent for the next twelve months at least. After that I imagine them splitting up to focus on solo-projects which never really see the light of day, or forging careers as music teachers in nearby colleges.
Goes well with…
The feeling you’re surrounded by midges.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
NME telling them what to listen to, championing up-and-coming indie-bands regardless of their musical merit.
I used to enjoy being told what to like by the NME – but then I did have a strict Catholic upbringing..
NME in the seventies was an essential part of my education. There’ll never be another like it.
Nothing you’ve written here inspires me to seek a listen to this.
No criticism of how you’ve written it up. You seem to have chosen to write about a bit of a musical damp squib.
It seems to be what it seems to be, which is an album not in my preferred idiom and rather easily ignorable. That first bit is just me and my prejudices but you don’t sell it very hard so I’m thinking there’s not that much to sell.
Please write about something you absolutely love to bits. That’s what would hit the spot. Even if it’s something you don’t think we’d like.
It’s very easy to record and release an album now, which should be a good thing. Especially when I think of how difficult it used to be for good performers and bands and all the might-have-been music we surely must have missed.
Now we are still missing what might be excellent music, because we can’t see it, obscured by all the so-so and the dross flooding in.
It’s always nice to get some positive feedback! This is a first time reviewer who’s taken the time and trouble to listen to this and write something. Maybe you might like to have a go?
Hi Mike,
I appreciate your comments, and get what you’re saying but I wanted to give an honest review. Anyway, everyone knows that the only opinion that counts is their own. If it’s any help, both The Skinny and Tenament TV like it so I may just have cloth-ears!
http://www.tenementtv.com/album_reviews/neon-waltz-strange-hymns/
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/reviews/albums/neon-waltz-strange-hymns
Small point of order, not really related to the content of the review – but more to challenge a common idea. While it might be easier in some limited senses to release an album (lower production costs, access to technology etc) it’s actually much harder in most others. A saturated market, obviously, is the biggest – but even beyond that, the fact that the industry in its old sense is dying on its arse and thus won’t spend money except on the very most bankable properties means that musicians have to spend their own cash because being signed is that much less likely, and that much less a guarantee of success. You have to think *very* carefully before embarking on such a project. And sometimes, even when you know for a fact that you’ll be in the hole to the tune of four figures, you do it anyway.
Recording sound onto a medium is technically easier than ever before, as is distributing it. The skills involved in record production – studio engineering, mixing and mastering – are not. They require an array of skills that take decades to learn, still. Any album-length recording represents the sum of thousands of hours of skill and loving attention, except in the cases of the most shameless supermarket cash-ins.
Sorry, I just have a bee in my bonnet about this right now for obvious reasons. I think there’s a misapprehension that if you’ve got a laptop and a microphone you can just press record and put something out. I suppose you *could* but by the same token you *could* have used a Tascam 4-track and a double-deck to distribute an album in 1985. Almost nobody *did*, because albums take a lot of skill and specialist kit to produce, and almost nobody does now for the same reasons.
I’m not saying we should give everything a positive review for effort, but the idea that any album can just be tossed off isn’t a fair one.
The Tascam generation were onto something, just way ahead of their time. That time may not have come around even yet, but it may still. The recording artist may become like the painter in his/her studio. Watch this space for another generation or so.
Some cool stuff was done on 4-track, for sure, but it’s a definite *sound*. It sounds lo-fi af – can’t sound otherwise – which is something that only works for very specific styles of music and really isn’t gonna be everyone’s cup of tea.
In the same way, there’s definitely a place for the amateur GarageBand+cheap mic approach, but it won’t ever break into widespread mainstream usage because – long story short – people want their music to sound, if not actively amazing, at least not terrible. That studio sound ain’t going anywhere.
(I’ll slightly qualify that by saying that it’s not going anywhere until someone works out how to make a Neumann u47 for £50 and how to make a front room sound like Henson B for similar money.)