Noah and the Whale Last Night On Earth (Mercury)
4/5
By: Rachel Bolland
Although it’s a horrible thing for someone to go through, it is hard to escape the fact that break-up albums tend to be some of the best work that bands produce. Misery is much more interesting than happiness, it’s sad but true. The songwriters of some of the incredible break up albums of the last few years, such as Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight or Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago all have one thing in common: they use their pain to produce incredibly poignant, emotional lyrics that resonate with anyone who’s ever had their heartbroken. The same can be said for Noah and the Whale’s front man Charlie Fink. His unfortunate separation from Laura Marling laid the foundations for The First Days of Spring, one of the most beautiful albums of 2009 and a huge step up in maturity from their debut Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down.
Fink is clearly in a much better place now, and while that’s lovely for him there was always a chance that his band’s follow up could suffer as a result. Fortunately, they’ve pulled it off rather well. Coming at a point in the year where the sun’s teasing us with its brief appearances and summer feels just round the corner, Last Night on Earth is the perfect record to pull you out of your winter slump.
From the beginning the album is just incredibly positive. Opener ‘Life is Life’ explicitly sets out the change of mood from The First Days of Spring, with lyrics like “He's gonna change, gonna change his ways/And it feels like his new life can start/And it feels like heaven”. This positive attitude permeates throughout the rest of the record, with lead single ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.’ and ‘Wild Thing’ adopting the American rock ‘n’ roll habit of telling tales of destitution and drinking in dingy bars in under five minutes. There are quieter moments towards the end of the record. Instrumental interlude ‘Paradise Stars’ provides a welcome change of pace before ‘Waiting For My Chance To Come’, a more reflective, personal song, seems to show that perhaps not all the wounds are healed.
Although it’s a very upbeat, thoughtful record, it still seems to pale into insignificance compared to The First Days On Earth. The songs aren’t as well crafted and at times it feels like they’ve borrowed from their influences a little too much, like ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.’ which is just a complete rip off of ‘Lola’ by The Kinks. However, although it lacks some of the emotion that its predecessor held, ‘Last Night On Earth’ further proves Noah and the Whale’s ability to change genre and still produce great records. From their debut to now it’s clear to see a development in their maturity, perhaps one that comes from a few more years of experience and few broken hearts.
Noah and the Whale - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N
Artists in this article: Noah & The Whale
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