poppedmusic

Wolf’s Law

Released 21st January 2013

I’ve had this album for a little while now and I’ve given it a number of listens on numerous occasions and I’m still finding that I can pretty much take it or leave it. This is not the expected response as I was looking forward to this album. Wolf’s Law is missing something for me and for the life of me I cannot put my finger on what that might be. I can only come to the conclusion that it does very little to offer any real progression from their debut album.

If you look at the ingredients of this album then it should be a joy with every earful but I feel like I have to really work for it sometimes. It is a good album, it’s an acceptable follow up from The Big Roar, and at times it even takes my breath away. I think though some of the songs are a little lengthy (8 of the 12 songs over 4 minutes long). This isn’t always a bad thing but the shorter tracks aren’t quite as snappy or punchy as they could perhaps be, and rather than giving the album a good rise and fall it all just starts to roll into one.

If it’s epic and cinematic that you are expecting and indeed looking for then you will no doubt be pleased with Wolf’s Law. There are lots of sweeping, circling whirring guitars, marching, pounding, stomping bass and percussion. I can’t fault it for that at all. They set out beautifully from the get go the exact route that the album is going to take; beautiful soaring strings turn sinister in the extended version of lead single This Ladder Is Ours (comprable to the fantastic Austere on TBR). The second track Cholla really starts as if it’s going to be that punch and attitude I’m looking for but somewhere along the ride, circa two mins in, it starts to slow down and where as I might usually like this, here I find it a bit annoying.

Silent Treatment is a perfect example of a track that is placed just right in terms of where it sits on the album; the gentle giant picking flowers mid battle. Acoustic guitar picking with the unmistakable string twang that sits aside a gently bubbling vocal melody. You would think that with all the epicness going in and out of other tracks that this song would be lost but it has the opposite effect in that it stands out as quite a beautiful and simple thing. What The Joy Formidable do next is either loonacy or genius depending on which side of the fence you’ve sat on today. Maw Maw Song begins and almost 1960s oriental musical sound, which quickly delves into something harder and electronic and eventually those swirling guitar noises descend. Personally I find having this song with this placement to be quite a statement, it could easily be an album closer with it’s length and structure if only the last few notes done a little something more.

The album’s closure is title track Wolf’s Law and it delivers on all levels for me. It very much belongs and you can almost hear musical themes that have occured throughout the album and that is beautiful and so well delivered. It builds gloriously and fades without ever having its glorious bubble burst. Throughout listening to the album there is no doubt that The Joy Formidable are excellent songsmiths and know exactly who they are and the sounds they want to make. I don’t know what it was that I was hoping for, what changes I might have expected or even if they really should have taken a path less trodden after all. They certainly don’t lack passion despite a very smooth production and that can easily be lost. I neither dislike nor like the album as a whole. There are moments, and some whole tracks, that I think are spectacular but I am admittedly looking forward to putting something else on now because my head is a muddled and confused mess.

Listen to  the album Wolf’s Law in full here: