Two Gallants are a band I don't own enough records by. I found their third, self titled album in a second hand shop in Soho just after I'd moved to London having been recommended them by someone I knew in Cardiff (but my memory of who it was has escaped me). I liked it a lot (especially Despite What You've Been Told) and managed to catch them in Hoxton Bar and Grill a couple of years later. Despite enjoying them both live and on record, I never quite got round to buying their other albums, although that might be just because you rarely stumble across them in record shops. Sure, I could've tried harder to find them, but I just never got round to it.
Anyway, last autumn I saw they were playing London again and shortly afterwards found their new album in Banquet. I had no idea they had a new album coming out and I had a fully-stamped Banquet loyalty card in my wallet wanting to be spent, so picked it up along with the new Godspeed record. Ollie was on the till that day and said he'd bought it too, but hadn't liked it as much as the other albums. I think it's great, but maybe our difference of opinions comes from the fact it's notably heavier than their last records, something which always appeals to me. The opener Halcyon Days is a huge start to the album, and My Love Won't Wait and Winter's Youth are great too. Basically, if you like your folk-rock a little more ballsy and heavy, they're worth a listen (as a side note, I always thought that the singer looks like a not-too-distant relative of James Hetfield, so maybe they're the Metallica of folk!?) Also, Wikipedia reckons it was produced by John Congleton, which is something I'm always keen on (even though there's no mention of this anywhere in the sleeve).
A particularly nice touch here is the bonus 7" included with the record (it's nice to be treated to extras when buying vinyl, rather than seeing bonus songs tacked on the end of the cd release). The 7" features a cover of Abner Jay's I'm So Depressed on one side, and an etching by the drummer on the b-side. I've tried to photograph it below, but I'm no photographer and figuring out how to capture an etching is beyond me at the moment. Just so you know, even with the record in my hand I'm not sure what the picture is of; I'm tempted to describe it as the top-half of a man vomiting from his eyes, whose bottom half is a birds head. Strange, I know. Still, the cover is nice and surprisingly upbeat for a song with such a title.
Format: 12" and 7", picture sleeve, insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 11/10/12
Colour: Black
Etching: Etching on b-side of 7"
mp3s: Download code
