After playing the St. Kilda Festival, and numerous other shows around Sydney and Melbourne, Western Australia’s Warning Birds launch their début EP Battle Plans, recorded with engineer Andy Lawson (Eskimo Joe, The Chemist).
After emerging in 2011, the band took out the prestigious WAM ‘Rock Song Of The Year Award’ with their song ‘Sally’, before being invited to showcase at the international Music Matters Live conference in Singapore; and now their journey continues.
A upbeat pop record full of interesting and intersecting stories and characters, that starts out with feelings of bleakness to those of uplifting and energetic tones.
It gives you images of sitting on the beach and watching the surf roll in. Yet, it doesn’t quite start off that way, with the prologue being a soft, piano piece.
A beautiful combination of vocals from Carmen Pepper and Sam Carmody, the album tells us the story of a life at sea, with childhood recollections of the darkness and dysfunctionality a rural coastal town can hold.
Pepper’s vocals are particularly brought to light in the slower, acoustic track ‘I’ll Tell The Water Of You’.
Combined with driving beats and brilliant guitars, the uplifting nature of the songs can hide the darker meanings and emotional undertones that the lyrics portray and flow throughout the record.
Despite the songs being put together extremely well, there isn’t one particular track that jumps out or stands up at you.
Still Battle Plans is a nice calming record, that would be perfect for a drive on a summer’s day.
