They’ve been going for something approaching a decade now, but you know what? In ‘Octoberland‘, their fifth long player, which was released on Friday, The Armoires have unleashed arguably their finest work, and it really is a bit of a gem.
Starting off with ‘We Absolutely Mean It‘, this was always going to appeal to my ears, given that it sounds rather like peak era The Wonder Stuff musically, and Christina Bulbenko’s vocals recall Kate Pierson of B-52s fame here. Then, in the ‘aliens landing on earth’ style bridge, it reminds me of the “it’s your money that we want, and your money we shall have” refrain of ‘Jolly Roger‘ by Adam and the Ants, who were my first favourite band.
Bulbenko’s vocals here (beautifully harmonising with guitarist Rex Broome) are a real boon to The Armoires, who have always been enjoyable, but the band is on fire for much of this record. Best of all are those songs where she evokes the memory of the late, great Kirsty MacColl, so, partly for that reason, ‘Ridley & Me After The Apocalypse‘ is just wonderful, though Christina is clearly a versatile performer, as the later ‘Snake Island Thirteen‘ is arguably more in line with the vocal stylings of Debbie Harry. Either way, you couldn’t really choose better than those two amazing women as a blueprint.
At other times, some of the compositions here sound weirdly like a winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest. I mean this in the kindest possible way. ‘You Ought To Be Cut In Half‘ for eaxmple comes across like it was written by The Beautiful South as something they might have put forward for that competition. It’s a very ‘fun’ album too, not least because of the wealth of artists that spring to mind as you’re listening. So ‘Its A Good Time To Come Back Down From The Cold‘, this time sung by Rex, is a more stripped down tune with just vocal and piano for the first minute, that puts me in mind of a young Marc Bolan in the pre-abbreviation days of Tyrannosaurus Rex, while ‘Ouroboros Blues (Crow Whisperer)‘ initially conjures up memories of Fairport Convention or perhaps Steely Dan but within seconds is more reminiscent of the aforementioned, sadly missed genius MacColl.
It’s an impressive feat, to record such a strong set of songs and put it out as your fifth album, but it is absolutely the best one by The Armoires yet. There’s not much else to say. Octoberland is simply a really enjoyable record.
