Kendal, England rockers the Wild Beasts have fortified their second full-length venture with unyielding pop style, which, despite the mellow and overall laid-back pace of the music, enters in the traditions of Queen, Prince, and Boy George wrapped in the tinfoil boundaries of today’s British mainstream. Choral arrangements and a frequent falsetto take a record of gooey guitar and pulsing toms and transform it into a smooth and sexy experience for the ears.
The album, Two Dancers, comes just over a year after their critically acclaimed debut, Limbo, Panto, and that short expanse of time is always a good thing for a pop group. What’s more, the new LP is loaded with tracks that are quick to gain momentum and even quicker to grab attention. Lead singer Hayden Thorpe uses his peculiar and dexterous baritone like a precision weapon and is truly the glue holding together the Wild Beasts’ unique sound. The rest of the band does just as much to create the musical world in which Two Dancers, well, dances. Guitars provide driving note-filled progressions over persistent bass and drums; actually, not enough can be said about the amazing tones lead guitarist Ben Little and the rest of the production/engineering team are able to extract from their instruments.
Starting strong with two nice, long singles, “The Fun Powder Plot” and “Hooting And Howling,” the album immediately boasts expertly filtered guitars and an almost glam-rock appeal. “All The King’s Men” feels modern and spacey and resembles a strange mix between the Dirty Projectors and Barenaked Ladies. I was particularly impressed with the slamming vibraphone solo that takes over the instrumentation of “Underbelly.”
In the end, the Wild Beasts have achieved a style with pop sensibility on Two Dancers, and the album is a definite mark in the win column for this (still relatively new) group. Who knows? It could deliver an impressive American following, that is, if they really want one.
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