Artist: Tom Williams & The Boat
Album: Teenage Blood
Bitrate: 236kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Moshi Moshi
Genre: Indie
Size: 64.92 megs
PlayTime: 0h 36min 17sec total
Rip Date: 2012-04-26
Store Date: 2012-04-23
Track List:
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01. Teenage Blood 3:55
02. Too Young 3:04
03. Little Bit In Me 4:18
04. Trouble With The Truth 4:49
05. My Bones 4:03
06. Neckbrace (Big Wave) 2:58
07. Like You 3:18
08. There's A Stranger 2:00
09. Summer Drive 4:35
10. Emily 3:17
Release Notes:
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Given the maximal dubstep glitch-witch digi-rap chillwave currently dominating
the blogsphere, Tom Williams & The Boat sounds shockingly brave in its
old-fashioned values. Yet Moshi Moshi, of all labels, are releasing Teenage
Blood, which suggests that either the label imagines they have a potential
Mumford & Sons level of success on its hands, or fashion is turning to the
virtue of guitar jangle, sawing violins and an overall rock-roots grit in thrall
to cult Australian icons The Triffids (and, to a lesser extent, Tom Petty and
the Heartbreakers).
That said, a band named The Heartbreakers flutters the heart more than The Boat,
so Williams has his work cut out convincing anyone Kent is the new Brooklyn. And
itÆs been a while since the words "shoemaker" and "grandma" appeared in a modern
song, together or apart, as they do in Little Bit in Me, a strident slice of
family-based folklore that showcases WilliamsÆ strengths.
Narratives û a series of doomed love affairs, according to Williams û dictate
the form of Teenage Blood, as the music closely traces the words. Mirroring its
title, the mood of his second album is sweltering, hormonal and tense. Take the
gripping Trouble With the Truth: a brief guitar figure haunts the room as the
momentum rises and falls, indeed like a boat, but with WilliamsÆ vocal equally
alternating between a tense calm and a giddy anger, like sea-sickness has set
in.
YouÆd expect a song called Neckbrace (Big Wave) to be equally dramatic, but it
simmers instead. A more accurate title is Summer Drive, one of Teenage BloodÆs
more wistful chapters, and Emily is a satisfying bittersweet finale that sounds
like the doomed mood has lifted, and resembles a happy ending.
But itÆs doubtful a happy ending awaits Teenage Blood in the blogsphere, as it
lacks another palpable anthem beside Trouble With the Truth, and the aura of a
truly great occasion; the charts, though, are something else. If followers of
the Mumfords, Stornaway and other similarly broad nu-folkies are ready for
something stronger, wordier and Triffids-y û and if a forthcoming series of
Later gives them a slot, hint hint û Williams might well set sail in some virgin
commercial waters.