Suggested Listening: Noah and The Whale – The First Days Of Spring [album review]

The First Days Of Spring.  Think about it.  It’s been a long, cold, and grey winter.  Living things have died or burrowed away for the frigid months.  The sun seems like a distant memory.  Then low and behold some of those luminous rays begin to break through the thick cloud cover.  Green buds pop up on trees.  Flowers start to sprout beneath the heavy layers of wet leaves and frozen dirt.

Noah and the Whale brilliantly capture the spirit of that tumultuous yet inspiring time with their new album The First Days Of Spring.  This is an album of love lost, pain, heartbreak, loneliness, solitude …yet whispers of hope for the future.  The lyrics of Charlie Fink are rough and honest and his vocals tremble from the soul (beautifully recorded with no layers of overdubs like so many other bands do).  “I’m a fox trapped in the headlights.  Oh and I’m waiting for the tires to spin over me.” That is one cold, cold lyric from the epic “Stranger”.  But the song reverses mood to one of optimism with it’s building closing refrain of “You know in a year it’s gonna be better.  You know in a year I’m gonna be happy.” Pain…but hope.  That’s the powerful mood swing that Noah and the Whale seize hold of and translate into a musical masterpiece.  Of course I haven’t even touched upon the fact that the orchestra and chorus they brought in for The First Days Of Spring pushes this album into the stratosphere.  Because man oh man….it does.

I don’t think I’ve heard such a moving album since The Antlers’ Hospice.  When The First Days Of Spring comes out on October 6th DO NOT sleep on it.  Noah and the Whale have produced one of this years best.

mp3: Noah and the Whale – Blue Skies

mp3: Noah and the Whale – The First Days Of Spring

mp3: Noah and the Whale – Our Window

mp3: Noah and the Whale – Blue Skies (Death To The Throne Remix)

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