Leonard Buckley | Contributing Writer
It’s always an exciting thing when a new band appears on the scene, especially when that band’s debut album has the capacity to lull such a large audience into adoration with no knowledge of what has gone before. But when that band announces a follow-up, one can’t help but wonder, how will it compare to such a monumental introduction?
how will it compare to such a monumental introduction?
Following the booming success of their 2012 debut album, Shallow Bed, Dry The River faced the challenge of writing and releasing a follow-up record without the room or privacy to figure out whether or not they had found their own idiosyncratic musical lexicon in the midst of the imitation every band begins with (and many never leave), as well as producing something that was, if not of superior quality, at least on a par with and exhibiting some sort of development from the previous record. It came as no surprise then that when the band released a short making-of documentary about their sophomore album, Alarms In The Heart, one of the first things mentioned by lead singer Peter Liddle was that, when writing songs for the new record, he “was really trying to force a level of complexity into the songs to show myself that two years of touring had improved me as a musician.”
the record still retains a vibe that fans will recognise as the Dry The River’s trademark sound
Fortunately, while being less acoustically driven and relying less on four-part harmonies to make for the more sense-seizing moments of the album (a tactic whose novelty and charm has been near done to death by the likes of Mumford), the record still retains a vibe that fans will recognise as the Dry The River’s trademark sound, with experimentation in areas of key/tonality/time signature changes to make for a more innovative sound than that of Shallow Bed. However, for all that might be said for progression from their debut, dynamically, the record still manages to strip itself back to some of the more vulnerable and winsome sounds of Shallow Bed from time to time, complimented by the almost Antony and the Johnsons style of frailty in Liddle’s counter-tenor vocal.
a subtle but significant maturation from the band’s debut
Overall, complete with a production team of the likes of Charlie Hugall (Florence + The Machine) and Paul Savage (Mogwai), as well as working with Valgeir Sigurosson (Sigur Rós, Björk) to make for some of the more lavishly ambient string arrangements, the record exhibits a subtle but significant maturation from the band’s debut, and is bound to act a treat to both previous fans and curious folk looking for an introduction.
