Noah and the Whale: Peaceful The World Lays Me Down
Friday, 15 Aug 2008 13:47
Noah and the Whale: Peaceful The World Lays Me Down
Vertigo Records, out August 11th.
In a nutshell…
The NEW 'folk music saviours'.
What's it all about?
Lot's of nice songs about castles and love and lying in the sunshine waiting to die (probably), performed by people wearing drainpipe jeans and quixotic haircuts (again, probably).
Who's it by?
Noah & the Whale, another group of musicians who, according to various music hacks, are going to save folk music. (They're deemed to be a folk band because they have a fiddle-player, by the way.) Apparently some people confuse them with an a cappella gospel choir called Jonah and the Wailers...
To read the inthenews.co.uk interview with Noah and the Whale, click here
As an example...
"And there’ll be love in the bodies of the elephants too/I'll put my hands over your eyes, but you peek through." - 5 Years Time
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Slim to nil. Unless they sign up that Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys who the whole music establishment seems to love and adore like their own surrogate, indie child.
What the others say
"The four-piece group's new single, 5 Years Time, is one of the summer's most infectious tunes ... it is a glorious love song punctuated by whistling, ukulele and some wispy backing vocals from Laura Marling." - Adrian Thrills, Daily Mail
"Noah & the Whale are junior folk-rockers, a sort of Hasbro Fairport Convention, a Blue Peter Pogues or Magic Roundabout Magic Numbers, reared on fiddletastic pop when other kids their age were sucking on Chupa Chups." - Paul Lester, Guardian
So is it any good?
For a start, Noah & the Whale aren't the "saviours" of folk. Folk music, which the Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary defines as "the music of the common people", doesn't need saving. And even if it did, the good people at Vertigo Records (whose other signings include the Killers and Razorlight) aren't the record company to do it.
Not a fan of "bittersweet" music or the feeble vocals of singers such as the skinny guy from Coldplay, I was all ready to hate this album with the burning passion of a thousand suns. However, if this collection of songs teaches us anything it is that hate should be reserved for bad people like terrorists and perverts, not the purveyors of pleasant 'folk'-pop ditties.
Beware, however: track five (Give A Little Love) contains handclapping, while track seven (the radio-friendly 5 Years Time) features whistling that would make Roger Whittaker blush.
It's essentially music for dweebs but, in the grand scheme of things, this is a solid work of biophiliac musicianship. Now excuse me while I go and listen to some Billy Joel...
7/10
Mike Cotgreave