poppedmusic

When Animals Stare

Released 1st August 2011

From the first listen of this album I was pretty much hooked, although it didn’t exactly start quite that way if truth be told. The starting track Water Will Find A Way is a track that has taken the most time for me to get to grips with I think. I still struggle to see it as a strong album opener and would have preferred personally to maybe swap it around with second track Walking On The Moon. I just feel like that has a better sound somehow to start the album. If i play it in that order that the album flows a little better, but that is entirely my personal preference and it did take me a little while for me to figure out that I liked it that way around.

Now that I’ve got to grips with the order of things it’s quite easy for me to pick out my album highlights and it isn’t necessarily entire album tracks but there are some arrangements that happen as part of tracks that I really love even if I’m still not 100% sure I love the entire song. Yet again I have to reference the album’s (real) opening track. There is the introduction of Hollywood style romantic strings an it’s just for a moment but I totally adore this added interest to the track and I do listen to the whole song just for that bit some times. Diamonds, the track that The Black Ghosts recently gave away, yup, totally free . It has attitude but is quite sparse in terms of its texture using only a few sounds and instruments to build and layer and harmonies. Again on this track I find myself thinking of films again. There’s a little violin part that is really reminiscent of something you might hear in a thriller or an old style horror films. It’s a really dark murky track and it sits perfectly in the middle section of When Animals Stare.

Diamonds is followed by a track that has some of the oddest lyrics I’ve ever heard put together, just in terms of not being able to put them in any kind of context themselves or even with the song as a whole. Sanguinella begins “Love, peace, suicide, pizza”. Seriously. WHAT? Moving past that it then has a great lyric that fits perfectly with the idea of animals “you come around here with your tail in the air like you don’t know what’s gone wrong.” Overall it’s a bit of a strange song but I still find myself singing along none the less so it can’t be so bad. Just odd. That’s never stopped me liking something before though! From one of the oddest to one of the most commercial/pop tracks on the album. Toward the start of the album you’ll find the deliciously poppy track In The Clouds. It has a really simple beat, really catchy piano and great vocals with harmonies that are just so lovely. Although I say it is quite a poppy track, don’t get me wrong it’s not all hearts and flowers and sickly sweet it has a good dance vibe to it and this could make for some genuinely great remixes from. The other thing about this track is that about two thirds of the way through it takes on some really gritty production techniques that give it that old crackly record player sound. It all adds to the build and texture of the track. What starts out as quite a simple track really develops and evolves and that’s partly what’s so great about it too.

Talk No More is the rockiest track from When Animals Stare, it has super dirty bass and a vocal and overall musical style  that really reminds me of something from the likes of The Rapture. The tambourine and the drums make you shake about a bit whilst that bass is really quite prominent in the mix. There’s quite a catchy hook for the chorus and over all I have to say this is right up there as one of my favourite tracks. It’s no wonder they chose it to use on the video they recently released for the creation of their new band logo.

In almost total contrast to the way the album starts, the last track, Your Soul Is Free, has quite an upbeat sound. With some more of that old style production, it’s all a bit hazy sounding rather than crackly. It also has quite a Latino vibe to it somehow; a combination of the guitar parts and little elements of the vocal style and the way the percussion punctuates in certain places. I imagine that you could dance the Tango to this quite easily if you were so inclined and actually able. This is actually one of the strongest closing album tracks that I’ve heard in quite a little while. There’s no messing around, no secret track just a great song. It’s got so many elements to it, it’s still a modern dance style track but the elements it incorporates, like many of the other tracks on the album for that matter, is quite inspired. I’m happy to listen to this album over and over, there are always new points of interest to listen out for and still tracks that are to grow, this is one I would love to see played live from start to finish, it’s that good.

Listen to When Animals Stare (Sampler):