I've never quite got this record. Even more of a mystery, in some ways, is why I even own a copy. I was given this copy of Two Dancers as a birthday present from my friend Hugh shortly after I'd left Cardiff and gone back to university. Not to sound terribly ungrateful, but I'm not sure I understand why he bought it for me. Over the years I'd lived in Cardiff we'd had a number of discussions about how I had no time whatsoever for Coheed & Cambria, mostly because of the ridiculous falsetto the singer sings with. Wild Beasts' calling card, on this record at least, is a similarly ridiculous falsetto.
I certainly have a lot of records by artists with voices that aren't traditionally considered "good" (Neutral Milk Hotel, Smashing Pumpkins, Front Bottoms, etc) but I suppose I like them for how raw they sound. Wild Beasts come across as the opposite - overly smooth vocals that bounce around at an unpleasant pitch. Three tracks in we briefly steer away from falsetto for part of All the King's Men only to find a voice that sounds like Morrissey, another singer I don't particularly care for. Vocally, as you might have noticed, I'm not a fan.
Musically, it's not bad. It's always felt like there's permanently been this dance-based undercurrent to indie music and there are certainly some bands in that genre that I quite enjoy (Q and Not U and !!!, to name a couple). The pairing often works quite well. There's a feeling of that here, and I quite enjoy it, once I get past the vocals. At best, there are parts of songs I enjoy enough to forget the bits I don't enjoy; Two Dancers (Pt II) and This is Our Lot both spend more time on the "I'm quite enjoying this" side than the "I'm not into this at all" side, so I guess that makes them highlights.
I don't like to be negative, but I've not spent the last 40 minutes listening to an album I get very much out of. I've owned Two Dancers for four and a half years now, and today is the first time I've played it in a very long time. I must admit, I came to it hoping that the years had treated it well and that perhaps today I might finally get it, but sadly that hasn't happened yet. Maybe one day.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: free, new
Bought: gift
When: 17/10/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
