Sounding like the deliciously steamy hybrid from a union of Sam Cooke, Thee Vicars, Rocket From The Crypt, and Jesus and Mary Chain, Thirst the debut album from sonic teasing crew Waves Of Fury is quite magnificent. Consisting of ten garage punk filtered rock n roll/R&B classics, the release pulsates with an instinctive and inspiring brew of infectious sonic grazings wrapped in warm and refreshing imagination. It is excitable yet equally held by a restraint which allows every individual element and idea to shine within the acidic surface smouldering of sound. Quite simply Thirst is a triumph of noise and heart.
The Somerset based quintet of Carter Sharp (vocals, guitars), Jamie Bird (pianos, vocals), James McPhee (drums), Fil Ward (guitars, vocals), and Bim Williams (horns), has been making distinct waves both sides of the pond, the band undertaking successful tour of Southern States in the US before venturing into the studio to record their album. With its magnetic charms and sounds Thirst is destined to spark an even fuller and wider recognition, it is hard to imagine a release this dynamically compulsive doing anything less.
The album opens with Death Of A Vampire, its initial shadowed music hall like echoes the introduction to a storm of fiery horns and fuzzy guitars paced by flattened chilled keys. As the distinct hollow lilted vocals stroll within the sounds the track flares up again and again with shimmering melodic expulsions and contagious enterprise. It is a merciless lure, a barbed splendour to envelop and seduce the senses and passions, something which can be applied to Thirst as a whole. There is a tomb like atmosphere to the song which only accentuates its immediate and masterful inventive presence.
From the incendiary beginning the following I Don’t Know What To Make Of Your Fucked Up Friends and Businessman’s Guide To Witchcraft offer their own caustic fires to overwhelm the heart. The first is a riled Motown gaited piece of magic which like an insidious puppeteer controls limbs and voice whilst unleashing its own cutting intent and opinions. The second is an amazing mix of shall we say Joy Division and The Four Tops, a constrained riot of sound and passion yet unbridled in its mesmeric strength and teasing. It is glorious, arguably best track on the album though that does wander as a choice with each listen of Thirst.
As tracks like the dark and schizo spiced Killer Inside Me with its scuzzed breath the perfect shadow to the melodic shards hooks and barbed horns, Pretender Soul, and The Everlasting Thirst state their claim on the affections the strong variety to the songs and writing of Sharp is unmissable. The second of this trio is a gentle emotive breeze within a flesh burning sonic heat whilst the latter is an acutely driven stomp across the ear with spotlights of horns sparking up a dazzling sheet of nagging sonics and consuming energy. The album is a perpetually twisting joy, each track bringing something new and unexpected but with a swagger to turn heads and ignite desires for much more.
After the brief Buddy Holly like pleasure of Nervous Exhaustion, the album closes on the mighty Viodrene, a song which just hypnotizes with its varied ideas and noise wrapped in a furnace of raw guitars and explosive horn crescendos. With an excellent break midway to allow a breath before the equally staggering conclusion, the track is all you need to know about Waves Of Fury and their quite brilliant sound. Lyrically the album is inspired by gothic writers like Poe and Saul Bellow but also by life and everyday manipulations, this song dealing with celebrity culture in an acerbic and mischievously skilled ingenuity.
Waves of Fury have created an album and songs which take all the wonderful discord and cryptic facets of melodic and sonic elegance and conjure them into their own unique and irresistible beauty. Thirst is outstanding and will easily makes a late and formidable impression on those best of year lists.
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RingMaster 29/10/2012
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