Wild Beasts
Two Dancers
Domino Records
September 8, 2009
By Peter Decoteau
By nature wild beasts are hard to pin down. So it is with England’s Wild Beasts, a band who defied definition on their criminally underrated debut album Limbo, Panto two years ago and have, with their new release Two Dancers, once again put out an album that is as confounding as it is enthralling.
Lead singer Hayden Thorpe’s mixture of falsetto crooning and unrestrained growling will inevitably turn off impatient listeners looking for a one-night stand – too bad, since they’ll be missing out on one of the better bands to have emerged at the end of this decade. The rest of us will be rewarded by repeat listens with an addictively distinct style that manages to sound dramatic, sly and rambunctious all at the same time.
Two Dancers presents a noticeable shift in gears for the group, who’ve toned down the flights of fancy that made Limbo, Panto an exasperating affair. Where the debut was an aggressive and scattershot set of songs that, at some points, was overwhelming in its wild ambitions, Two Dancers is subtle and nuanced, allowing the songs more room to breathe and develop into melodies that will stick in your head for days.
This does not mean that the biting humor and unruly charm have disappeared, but that the band has finally figured out how to use restraint to enhance the effect of these attributes.
The album’s stellar opener “The Fun Powder Plot” serves as a perfect example of the group’s updated direction, managing to sound completely serious while Thorpe howls lines like “This is a booty call.”
Things remain in top form for the rest of the album, with highlights like “When I’m Sleepy” lulling listeners in before exploding into guitar riffs that sound like they’re dripping right out of the speakers, and the two-part title song, the band’s darkest and most exciting track yet.
Make no mistake, both of the Wild Beasts’ releases require an adventurous ear, but Two Dancers is markedly easier to fall into once listeners accept Thorpe’s unique delivery. Expect to see this on many year-end lists, but don’t expect these beasts to be tamed any time soon.
