wild beasts - mecca
oh boy this song is just lush! taken off their new album 'present tense', this uk quartet continue to make alt pop with an art bent (especially with this single). throw in the equally amazing video by studio moross and you have something uber special here. LOVE this!
wild beasts - we still got the taste dancin' on our tongues [art rockers wild beasts return with a falsetto filled dreamy 'pop' song for the winter season. not as immediate as their previous releases, but i still dig these boys especially because of lead singer hayden thorpe's crazy voice]
UPDATE: check out this recent performance on kcrw!
wild beast - all the kings men [this band had me at the falsetto!]
if you like this, check out a live version from last weekends later with jools holland below:
wild beasts - all the kings men [from rcrd lbl (who are also offering this song as a freebie!): Singer Hayden Thorpe's voice veers between a falsetto and a primal yelp. He often sounds like he's using his vocal register to vent an emotional frustration; the result is a confident vulnerability and that rarest of things, a genuine sense of charm. Now with an average age of twenty-one Wild Beasts started when they were just eighteen. The band deliberately sought to distance themselves from what they assumed was the norm. Recalling their formative years Thorpe confirms their distinct sense of identity: "We're lucky we worked really hard and made a conscious effort to be a as individual as we could. It came out of a boredom and lack of interest in beer and testosterone rock. It concentrated us like a fruit".
The band, now based in Leeds, originally hail from Kendal. Growing up the band were well aware of their surroundings. Thorpe reflects: "There was a definite sense of isolation. We never got rapt up in any scene and we've never been validated”. As much as reflect the Lake District landscape, the songs on Limbo, Panto suggest an environment where Philip Larkin and Noel Coward might playfully argue the merits of trouser length as a metaphor before measuring their own. Thorpe confirms the band are well aware they are operating on their terms: "The openness and humour is part of the music's strength and is its greatest vulnerability." Wild Beasts are an extremely rare proposition, a band happy to stand or fall on their own terms letting their muse be their wayward guide. Undeniable and refreshing let them seep out of the limestone and into your consciousness by, to quote Brave, Bulging Clairvoyants: "Adopting this young spirit of sin / to make the most, before we turn to ghost."]
wild beasts - the devil's crayon [link 2] [i'm in awe! upon hearing this song for the 1st time, the soaring theatrical vocals of hayden thorpe swirl into a falsetto chorus only to switch into a ripped up gutteral howl which somehow makes for a perfect blend of random. will this work for their upcoming full album limbo, panto? i'm not quite sure, but at least i've just discovered a unique band that i'll be keeping an eye out over the next couple of months.]
