And So I Watch You From Afar - All Hail Bright Futures (Album Review)
Friday, 01 March 2013
Written by Ben Bland
Ahead of recording this album, the members of And So I Watch You From Afar were faced with an interesting dilemma as to how to progress as a band. Their self-titled debut record and its follow-up, 'Lifeproof', were not desperately original in terms of the musical landscape they travailed, but the way the Northern Irish quartet executed their ideas in such a vigorous fashion that they automatically stood out from other instrumental rock bands. Yet making passionately exciting music can only get you so far. The band’s third album needed to be something a little different, something to mix up the formula just a bit.
Whether this formula has been mixed up for the better on 'All Hail Bright Futures' or not is initially hard to determine. This is largely because, rather than sticking to the four or five minute songs that populated most of their past releases, here And So I Watch You From Afar commit themselves admirably to brevity, hardly a quality that ‘post-rock’ is known for. There isn’t much to get hold of here, ideas fly backwards and forward in a fit of chaos, but at first this only enhances how exhilarating And So I Watch You From Afar can be. After repeated listens, however, the realisation slowly dawns that 'All Hail Bright Futures' really suffers from a lack of one thing, ideas.
You see, this is a record populated largely by fragments of ideas. The band have always written sweet riffs, and this record has plenty of them, but it’s hard to grasp any of them because they are always gone well before the point at which they would actually be missed. Occasional bursts of heaviness break out but lack any real power because they are immediately swept away by another jolt of mathy guitar work. What should be the most pertinent moments on 'All Hail Bright Futures' are consistently undermined by the band’s insistence on careering off straight away in another direction.
Listeners will also be quick to spot the band’s adoption of vocals on this record. They feature on almost every track, and in almost the same point of every track, and in almost exactly the same way. The vocal refrain of 'Big Thinks Do Remarkable' is impressive because it is the first of its type on the album. Then two or three more songs go by and the realisation slowly dawns that the concept of a repeated lyric being passionately bellowed above the band’s snazzy math rock is here to stay for the duration of the record. Thus the impact of one of the few ideas on the album not snatched away from the listener before it can be truly appreciated is completely ruined by its repetition.
It’s a bizarre step for a band that is clearly overwhelmingly confident in its songwriting abilities, but fans will be relieved to know that all is not lost. There are still moments here when the band really does pull something special out of the bag. The pre-vocal section of 'Rats on Rock' is nothing short of astounding, managing to take the sound of Norwegian experimental jazz act Jaga Jazzist and transpose it wholly onto And So I Watch You From Afar’s more furious and less broad palate. 'Mend and Make Safe', meanwhile, might be one of the best all-round compositional pieces the band has ever put together. It constantly fights with itself along the way but such a merry dance only increases the joy of listening to it.
Joy is an apt word to bring up at this point. It is one that has always been clearly associated with And So I Watch You From Afar’s breathtakingly upbeat music. More than any other ‘post-rock’ band around, this is a band that has always sounded hopeful and defiant. Here that is, if anything, amplified by the band’s (all too) restless creativity. To put it bluntly, 'All Hail Bright Futures' isn’t as good as the band’s first two records but it clearly is still great fun. It breezes by in no time at all. It won’t make you fall in love the way this band has in the past, but it will leave you pining to see them again at their delirious live best as soon as possible. It may lack a bit of staying power, but it’s a bold and bright record, and perhaps that is exactly what it is meant to be.
'All Hail Bright Futures' is out on March 18th via Sargent House. ASIWYFA tour the UK in April, including performances at a number of UK festivals.
Tue April 16th 2013 - The Garage, London
Wed April 17th 2013 - Thekla, Bristol
Thu April 18th 2013 - Temple, The Institute, Birmingham
Fri April 19th 2013 - O2 ABC 2, Glasgow
Sat April 20th 2013 - Manchester Academy 3, Manchester
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Whether this formula has been mixed up for the better on 'All Hail Bright Futures' or not is initially hard to determine. This is largely because, rather than sticking to the four or five minute songs that populated most of their past releases, here And So I Watch You From Afar commit themselves admirably to brevity, hardly a quality that ‘post-rock’ is known for. There isn’t much to get hold of here, ideas fly backwards and forward in a fit of chaos, but at first this only enhances how exhilarating And So I Watch You From Afar can be. After repeated listens, however, the realisation slowly dawns that 'All Hail Bright Futures' really suffers from a lack of one thing, ideas.
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