Wild Beasts / Smother

Wild Beasts
Smother
(Domino)
* *

Before you enjoy Wild Beasts fully, there's the question of 'getting' the distinctive countertenor of front man Hayden Thorpe. It's one possible reason why, despite the critical acclaim and admiration that have met their first two records, the band have yet to fully make the leap out of the margin of alternative indie rock. Along with similarly divisive vocal anomalies, such as Joanna Newsom and Arthur Russell, it takes a certain tolerance and palette to enjoy Wild Beasts in the first place.

Where their second album 'Two Dancers' managed a Mercury Prize short listing (which by no means implies mass appeal), there was also a degradation to Thorpe’s voice, which stretched itself recklessly across extreme highs and lows, straining over the post-punk ebb of repetitive guitar glimmers.

Yet, where 'Two Dancers' stood out for its epic affectation –a sensibility that shot Arcade Fire into the stratosphere – 'Smother' pulls away from the vocal gymnastics and desperate emotion that made Wild Beasts so attractive in the first place. As Thorpe nurses his vocal chords through a significantly more downbeat track listing, his lyrics apologise for past indiscretions (“I was crude, I was rude, I was lewd, I was not in the mood”) in ‘Reach A Bit Further’. I say don’t apologise.