NOAH AND THE WHALE – THE FIRST DAYS OF SPRING

It is a tradition of the English to do things with a dash of grandiosity, and here, for their second major studio album, Twickenham folk favourites Noah and The Whale have created a record with an accompanying film that carries on this tradition with understated mastery. The First Days of Spring is a ‘journey’ record, dark and stormy and produced with a sonic verve that lends itself well to the film format. Charlie Fink’s songs weave a tapestry of hope and heartbreak, tapping into that unique kind of breezy melancholy, by turns amusing and disturbing. Shades of the later work of American dark-master Bill Callaghan can be heard, particularly in the title track, a wash of weary poetics and milky strings. Strangely, the negative character observations in the lyrics seem somehow comforting rather than distressing – “I love nothing, and I love no-one…” is countered with “so walk with me, I’ll walk you til your fears turn numb… I need your light in my life”. The experimental acoustic sounds-capes are intricately executed by the band throughout, culminating in a trilogy of pieces at the centre of the album, the exuberantly Tabernacle-style Love of An Orchestra, hemmed in by two intricate instrumental pieces that provides a masterful segue into the third act of the record. The pinnacle of this journey is the bitterly optimistic Stranger, the entire band chorusing the pensive mantra “you know in a year, it’s gonna be better… you know in a year, I’m gonna be happy.” This young group have all their instrumental and thematic elements working in clever synergy, and the result is a startling listen from start to finish, a rare and brilliant masterwork of indie aesthetics married with a grand vision.

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