Ok.
There’s no questioning that I am coming in late with this particular review, this is an album I should have paid attention to a while ago. The warning signs were all there of course, a single released earlier in the year that could grab your attention and hold it in vice like grip while turning the blood in your veins to ice (in a good way). However I took the three minute pleasures from the radio and filed them at the back of my head along with all the other stuff I intend to check out but forget.
My bad, slap my wrists. I’m guilty of omission here.
The eponymous debut album from Howling Bells is something a little bit special. Thirteen songs of quiet majesty taking in a number of subtle influences and making them their own along the way. In an age where popular music seems to be so much inclined towards the tight claustrophobia of an urban environment there is something refreshingly natural about this release. Melodic and spacious there are no sharp edges in these songs and in truth there can’t be. The songs are crafted to buoy the vocals of Juanita Stein who has one of those voices that is effortlessly powerful and simultaneously moving. What makes her efforts all the more easy to appreciate is the rest of the band know her strengths and play to them beautifully.
Make no mistake this isn’t the happiest of albums, the songs have an organic darkness to them all of their own but its not doom and gloom in the self indulgent ‘bedroom angst’ sense. This isn’t dark just for the sake of it, there is as much beauty in the words as there is in the music that frames them. As a whole Howling Bells takes subtle backwards glances at bands like The Sundays as well as a very gentle weaving of country influences into some of their works (particularly songs like ‘In The Woods’). It’s all done very respectfully though and the band can’t be accused of outright plagiarism in terms of style or content.
This isn’t an album for all occasions and in places it asks the listener for a strong level of investment but its one of those albums that given a little time might just find itself elevated in terms of status to one that sits that little higher than its peers.
