Noah and the Whale - Last Night On Earth, a review



To the untrained eye, Noah and the Whale might appear to be that folk-pop one-hit-wonder behind "5 Years Time". Well, they did to me anyway. So it was a bit of a surprise to hear about their new album being all electro-infused and indie-pop; though expecting 11 5 Years Times might have been a bit foolish.

From the get-go, with "Life Is Life", soft synthesised beats and riffs linger to build a rather pleasant pop song indeed - the chorus being more glorious than a blowjob from a priest (I'm trying out this new shock-tactics approach to review writing; I'll probably get rid of it now). In "Tonight's The Kind of Night" there is the devilish trick of speeding things up a bit so as to give the illusion of rhythm but in all reality it's a bit boring.

The first single, "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.", has a bit of an annoying gimmick in that the song title is spelled out for you. It's pitched somewhere between catchy and nauseating, but slightly more to the former. Things are stripped back a bit more convincingly in "Wild Thing" where subtle synth loops contribute towards a rather lovely atmosphere.



Vocalist Charlie Fink seems to be suffering from the "I'm trying to be indie and therefore must come across quite bored and simultaneously quirky" bug on 'Give It All Back' which by any means is a decent track but never really goes anywhere. A valiant attempt at varying things up a bit is made in 'Just Me Before We Met'; a distracting violin at most. But in all fairness it's one of the better tracks.

There's a minute and a half of lovely piano minimalism in 'Paradise Stars' before 'Waiting For My Chance to Come', something very inspired by the Day & Age-era Killers. Its greatest strength is also a hindrance: it reminds me of better music. There's a lot of cuteness about 'The Line', all pondering clichés ("looking out of the window", "between Heaven and Hell") but there's a subtlety to the music that saves some face.



Final track 'Old Joy' is a slow-building minimal song, all piano and gospel-chorals. However, this could only revive spirit in those already on acid. The whole album is just typical of 2007-onwards acts like The Hoosiers and The Wombats - they have a few irritatingly catchy singles and then absolutely squat to back it up with. This isn't going to change lives, and whilst they might not have intended to, it's not got much in the way of lighthearted distraction either.

Rating: 5/10
Highlights: Life Is Life, Wild Thing, Just Me Before We Met
Avoid: Give It All Back, Old Joy, Tonight's The Kind of Night

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