On the face of it, Whitney’s debut LP, ‘Light Upon the Lake’, could be a pleasant offering from any one of a number of new bands making their first forays into the saturated world of indie-folk. What gives this duo the edge is their musical ancestry: Max Kakacek previously played guitar for the now-disbanded Smith Westerns, while JulienEhrlich – who assumes vocal responsibility on this record – was the drummer for Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
You might argue it unfair to judge the merit of this newly-formed collaboration on the pair’s previous work, but it’s inevitable that each will bring their existing styles and influences to the mix. In this case, both Smith Westerns and UMO triumphed in a landscape of sleepy, bluesy slides and jaunty guitar flourishes. Whitney, and their debut offering, are no different.
The record is short and sweet; the tracks are short and sweet. The listener barely has time to immerse themselves in the woozy Beirut-borrowed brass and Sufjan Stevens-esque compositions before it’s over. It’s an experience not unlike nodding off dreamily in the sunshine before being nudged awake.
Lyrically, the band traverses a perilous path between identifiable soulfulness – “Will life get ahead of me?/All these times will change/I can’t turn away,” from Light Upon the Lake – and archetypal, cringe-inducing twee: “I wanna drive around/With you with the windows down/And we can run all night,” from No Matter Where We Go.
The lyrical peaks and troughs mirror the record’s emotional ebb and flow, though. Some of these songs are perky and positive, some are downbeat and almost melancholy, with lyrics that are neither here nor there allowing you to derive your own meaning, as all good records do.
The vocals will certainly prove more divisive. Ehrlich’s wailing stylises both Bon Iver and UMO’s Ruban Nielson, with multiple overlays and effects designed to create an ethereal, whimsical feel, but in this case they seem ill at ease with the instrumentals, and slightly jarring in some instances.
That said, there can be no doubting Ehrlich’s earnestness, or that of the whole record. Whitney haven’t reinvented the wheel here, but they have produced the lovely summer record scores of bands in less advantageous positions wish they had the chance to release.
Whitney Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue June 14 2016 - LONDON Oslo Hackney
Thu August 25 2016 - OXFORD Bullingdon
Thu November 03 2016 - BRIGHTON Haunt
Fri November 04 2016 - NOTTINGHAM Bodega Social Club
Sat November 05 2016 - GLASGOW CCA
Sun November 06 2016 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Cluny
Tue November 08 2016 - MANCHESTER Gorilla
Wed November 09 2016 - BRISTOL Thekla
Thu November 10 2016 - LONDON KOKO
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