Echoes and dust

By some strange synaptical misfiring, I can’t think of Maybeshewill without also thinking of 'Murder She Wrote', odd I know but there’s nothing I can do about it. However, I suspect there’s nothing much about Leicester’s Maybeshewill that Angela Lansbury would approve of and therefore plenty to interest us.

‘Sing The Word Hope In Four Part Harmony’ is a step up from their previous offering, ‘Not For Want Of Trying’, both in terms of the quality of the music and the volume. ‘Not For Want...’ intrigued in places but was a tad too samey and adhered too closely to the post rock rule book. On ‘Sing The Word...’ that book's been thrown through the window and the piano that became a bit of an irritant on the first record takes more of a backseat here, although it still features heavily the use of it feels more thought through. It’s all a lot more Russian Circles than God Is An Astronaut, and that’s a good thing in case you were wondering.

The record kicks off with ‘You Can’t Shake Hands With A Clenched Fist’ and is a short, brutal foretaste of what is to come. It’s a great way to open the record and prepare the listener for what follows.

A great illustration of what this band are about now are the two tracks; ‘This Time Last Year’ and ‘Last Time This Year’, twitchy, glitchy and heavy they show an new adventurousness and a musical maturity to explore beyond the norm.

However, the two tracks that really grab the listener by the short and curlies are ‘Accept and Embrace’, a tense, beautifully atmospheric track that resolves itself with a gorgeous brutality, and the monstrously epic title track that closes the album. The track stands apart from the rest of the record, featuring a spoken diatribe on the state of today’s youth and society over an strangely uplifting, slow burn backing track. The theme of ‘state of the nation’ pervades the whole album but this is its most surfaced moment and certainly gives one pause for thought.

In a time when it feels like modern society is falling down around our ears, when politicians are on the make and the man in the street can barely afford a couple of pints, perhaps Maybeshewill have just supplied the perfect soundtrack to these dark times. Bring on the anarchy!

Top Tracks: 'Accept and Embrace', ‘Sing The Word Hope In Four Part Harmony’.

Released June 01 on Field Records