The clouds are finally clearing for Charlie Fink and company. It’s been a long time coming since that solemn and poignant opening from ‘First Days of Spring’ from the second album slowly moping away from the sunshine of their debut. Really it established the band’s music for all seasons. If you had any doubts about that, third album Last Day on Earth was the ultimate proof. With its cheery upbeat Americana-ish stylings, the un-escapable colour filling palette was looming, a slight polaroid sepia tone in Last Day on Earth’s case.
And so that brings us to Exlovers who bring quite a quaint boy-girl antithesis to get things going. If they’re name can’t evoke images of teenage infatuation throughout the summer days, then ‘Blowing Kisses’ might just do that. Like a blowing kiss, the carefree Cure-esque guitars breeze past in a warm radiant fashion, backing vocalist Laurel looking particularly nonchalant as her yellow dress radiates solar warmth to this Teenage Fanclub like soundtrack. It’s all deliriously nostalgic as their tasty 90s indie influenced sound sweetly allures as the bulleting drums ignite a lust and youthful adrenaline.
If Exlovers brought the cheer, Noah and the Whale bring the whole canvas of emotional delight. There’s an innocent joy to them, whether it’s through the delightfully joyous ‘Five Years Time,’ the ultimate summer soundtrack as the violins chirp away, the entire band joining together in a delirious harmony like a bunch of giddy school boys (they’re looking particularly dapper in their suits tonight) catching the train to their next sugar sweet destination (‘Love of an Orchestra’,) as everything rattles along in pure, untouched bliss. Then there’s the more Springsteen influenced stylings via ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’ or the diner ballad of ‘Wild Thing,” where Charlie Fink channels a pubescent Lou Reed as he floats along without a care, the breaks reaching the extravagant epiphanies of his life and remembering that there’s plenty more going on, because of course, life does go on.
But even at their most solemn and slow, it’s still a visceral experience. ‘First Days of Spring’ and ‘Our Window’ are whale song but not in a behemoth, fish like way. The violins trickle along echoing a lone sorrowful resonance, Fink’s guitar slowly trickling down in tears before exploding into unrelenting joyousness. If ‘Five Years Time’ was the Marling infatuation period and “First Days of Spring” was the break-up, then this was recovery at its finest.
