Genre: Indie/Folk

Label: Universal


CRITIQUE:


Like what Vampire Weekend have done to the genre of Afro-pop, Noah and the Whale does to folk. This quartet Londoners fuse to give a much-needed breath of fresh air on the scene filled with racket of Brit bands and endless cacophonies to drumbeats and guitar-strings. Noah and the Whale, quite appropriately named after the film The Squid and The Whale, is exactly what their music suggests: indie, offbeat but perceptive and strung with emotional chords. Let not be their melodies fool you, that their music is the musical equivalent of sunshine on your window on a lovely morning, listen more closely as there is a beautifully, almost-poetic written lyrics that touches with so much pathos, atmosphere, despair, hope, passion, love found, and then lost. Like Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends, they have a fascination on death and the pain of love. The album’s liveliest beat is “5 Years Time”, brimming with sweet honesty, like a song you would expect to hear in a film like Little Miss Sunshine or Napoleon Dynamite – but broaden your mind and open your ears, there are much better tracks in the pack. The longing, achingly great “Shape of My Heart”, the exceptional “Do What You Do”, the pain and hurt of “Second Lover”, and the sheer beauty and scope of “Peaceful The World Lays Me Down”. Since Goldfrapp decided to go folksy, and Feist gave us a breathtaking world of folk – these four lads, with vocalist Charlie Fink’s timbre-quality of voice, like a voice of your everyman, down-to-earth and occasionally tremulous, becomes a welcome addition to this genre, and they’re doing bloody well on it.


VERDICT:

Contemporary folk is a genre to get absorbed with, upcomer Noah and the Whale proves rightly so. Emotionally rich, melodiously satisfying, this album is a wonderful experience to listen to. They’re a bunch of blokes who know their joys from their heartaches, and crafts songs in folk-style.


RATING: A-