Noah And The Whale
Last Night On Earth
Noah And The Whale are something rather rare: a band for which every album released is an improvement on the previous one. This, their third record, beats The First Days Of Spring (which came 8th in 2009) hands down, which in turn is far superior to Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down (14th in 2008). Perhaps more importantly, all three of these albums are notably different from each other. Where Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down was all about carefree pop naivety, and The First Days Of Spring was full of string-laden melancholia about the end of a relationship, Last Night On Earth evokes tentative rebirth, what-will-be-will-be and forward-thinking optimism. Musically, this is grown-up pop, with elements of Reed and Bowie, mixed with the folk-rock sound that Noah And The Whale are most famous for. Far outshining most of their peers (Mumford And Sons springs to mind as a more popular, broadly similar, but nowhere near as good contemporary), Noah And The Whale have reached a new level. Last Night On Earth is their first genuine classic, following on from their previous two (still really rather good) efforts. I’m amazed it has not made the top 5, which once again says something about the strength of the field in 2011. To think that their debut featured significant collaboration with Laura Marling, and it looked for all the world at the time that Marling was the real star. Yet the respective second and third albums by Marling and Noah And The Whale, at least for me, have demonstrated completely opposite career trajectories (in terms of quality, if maybe not critical/commercial success). Let’s hope album 4 is even better still...
Last Night On Earth
Noah And The Whale are something rather rare: a band for which every album released is an improvement on the previous one. This, their third record, beats The First Days Of Spring (which came 8th in 2009) hands down, which in turn is far superior to Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down (14th in 2008). Perhaps more importantly, all three of these albums are notably different from each other. Where Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down was all about carefree pop naivety, and The First Days Of Spring was full of string-laden melancholia about the end of a relationship, Last Night On Earth evokes tentative rebirth, what-will-be-will-be and forward-thinking optimism. Musically, this is grown-up pop, with elements of Reed and Bowie, mixed with the folk-rock sound that Noah And The Whale are most famous for. Far outshining most of their peers (Mumford And Sons springs to mind as a more popular, broadly similar, but nowhere near as good contemporary), Noah And The Whale have reached a new level. Last Night On Earth is their first genuine classic, following on from their previous two (still really rather good) efforts. I’m amazed it has not made the top 5, which once again says something about the strength of the field in 2011. To think that their debut featured significant collaboration with Laura Marling, and it looked for all the world at the time that Marling was the real star. Yet the respective second and third albums by Marling and Noah And The Whale, at least for me, have demonstrated completely opposite career trajectories (in terms of quality, if maybe not critical/commercial success). Let’s hope album 4 is even better still...
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