Not sure exactly how I feel about the newest The Working Title record, Bone Island, yet. Read an amazing review of it one of my favorite music sites Absolutepunk.net. It's a collection of hits and misses. But the high points are Himalayan and the low points are back-alley Chinese dumpster low.
Bad news first...
Lows: First track "Physical Love" kicks off with morose organ brooding. The low-fi raw sound doesn't work for them and drowns out vocalist Joel Hamilton's superb voice. "Hijackers" shows Hamilton taking on an indecipherable lower register over thrashing noises. Bad, bad, bad. Couldn't listen to more than a minute of it.
But they save the day!
Highs: "Love Make Me Free" allows Hamilton's powerful vocals to take over the slowed-down track while allowing the bending notes to swirl around. "Followed" also begins with ghostly organ blasts, but this time they complement the track, sounding more "steamboat coming through early morning fog" than background to a cheesy B-horror movie. The track finds Hamilton's wavering voice dragging through shifting and crackling drums. A sure stand out
"Darkness" provides a very sensory cut, with twinkling and spooky keys/riffs/beats shrouding the song in...well...darkness.
The instrumentation is top notch, be it acoustic and soft (see "Arms and Thighs") or complex and intricate (see twinkling keys and industrial drumming of "Wolf" or beautiful piano interlude overdubbed on machine gun drum fills on "Listen, Read Decide")
The band also shows off their ability to range from their forte of slowed "Fray-like" ballads, with the mewithoutYou-like "Sugar For My Sugar" and epic 6-minute closer "Might As Well".
Know what? I've reached a conclusion. This is a great record. If you look past the bad (and I mean really bad) songs, the rest of the tracks are truly impressive. And you know I'm all about giving props for ambitiousness and stepping outside oneself. Pat yourself on the back The Working Title, and meanwhile, I'm gonna go give your record another solid listen.
BUY
love make me free - the working title
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