Circa Waves frontman Kieran Shudall has made it no secret that the band want to see their name at the top of the biggest festival bills. It’s an understandable goal, but if you want to sell millions of albums, play to thousands of people and get those coveted headline slots then you’ve got to come up with the goods.
That usually means coming up with ‘big’ songs. And, while ‘Different Creatures’ does sound ‘bigger’ than 2014’s ‘Young Chasers’, that’s actually not the key talking point here. What’s most striking about this album is just how heavy it is - relatively speaking, of course.
Gone are the surfed-up nods to the Strokes and early Arctic Monkeys and in are Biffy Clyro-esque drop tunings and chunky, distorted riffs. Yes, Circa Waves have been pigeonholed as indie-rock, but it’s fair to say that this latest effort is far more rock-leaning than its predecessor.
The narrative themes on offer here are also different. Where ‘Young Chasers’ was largely concerned with love, life and lust, ‘Different Creatures’ deals with meatier subjects like depression and the influence of social media.
The band even get political on the album’s title track, choosing to address the UK government’s decision to put a cap on the number of Syrian refugees allowed to enter the country. “All 20,000 souls are sold tonight,” sings Shudall above a layer of subdued instrumentation, as if to drive the poignancy of his words home.
Another clear difference is the decision to take listeners on more of a journey, and in that they’ve succeeded. The record possesses a clear beginning, middle and end. But it doesn’t necessarily make for a better listening experience. Mid-album track Out On My Own, for example, ultimately fails to grab hold of you and is seemingly included in the listing because it does sound like a mid-album ballad.
This halfway stage blip doesn’t greatly affect the record as a whole, though it’s tempting to think the overall package could’ve been that little bit better if the band opted not to follow a linear structure. So, will we see Circa Waves alongside the likes of Foals and Biffy at the top of the Reading and Leads bill? Not anytime soon. But, apart from a few small imperfections, ‘Different Creatures’ shows that they are a band capable of innovation and reinvention. If they stick around long enough, that might just work in their favour.
Circa Waves Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat March 18 2017 - SHEFFIELD O2 Academy Sheffield
Mon March 20 2017 - GLASGOW Barrowland
Tue March 21 2017 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Newcastle University S.U
Thu March 23 2017 - MANCHESTER Academy
Fri March 24 2017 - LIVERPOOL Liverpool Guild of Students
Sat March 25 2017 - OXFORD O2 Academy Oxford
Mon March 27 2017 - BRISTOL O2 Academy Bristol
Tue March 28 2017 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Thu March 30 2017 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
Fri March 31 2017 - LONDON O2 Forum Kentish Town
Sat April 01 2017 - LEICESTER O2 Academy Leicester
Mon April 03 2017 - NORWICH Norwich Nick Rayns LCR UEA
Tue April 04 2017 - CAMBRIDGE Cambridge Junction
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