Wild Beasts may have wound down their dandyish eccentricities over time (they rarely cluck out ‘Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants’ anymore), but across three perversely creative records they’ve proven that there’s a surplus of other treasures to their sophisticated sonic repertoire.
From the tersely elegant (2009’s Two Dancers) to the erudite yet smuttily charged (2011’s Smother), the four Kendal gentlemen have crafted indie rock that steeps all its usual signifiers – rebellion, performance, precision – in a gentrified musical language that’s all their own.
Their fourth LP does nothing to damage that spotless record.
On first impressions however, it’s not as striking as previous efforts, even though it contains the same reputable hallmarks – such as the zen-spaced drumming of Chris Talbot or Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming’s velvety croons.
The starkest change in the aural atmosphere is the audacious tilt to synthesised sounds. In fact, Present Tense is deliciously devoid of six-stringed instruments, perhaps ironically so for a band once saddled by NME as the new saviours of guitar rock.
The shift in producers to Brian Eno acolyte Leo Abrahams and Björk dallier Alex ‘Lexxx’ Droomgole (the band’s first LP without Richard Fromby), has intensified Wild Beasts’ cultivated focus on restraint and patience.
The result is 11 compelling, subversive numbers that, though gaunt in structure, deliver a glut of rewards with each new spin.
The rattling drum roll in the poignant, percussive ‘A Dog’s Life’ mimicking a canine’s bouncing ball, or the gilded, textural blooms of ‘New Life’ and faint menace of ‘Nature Boy’ (inspired by a WWF wrestler, no less) are just some of many details to unlock.
The minimalism of Present Tense – in mood and music – occasionally errs on the slighter side of understatement, but its minor shortcomings are vastly overcome by the many more fulfilling moments.
A line in ‘Wanderlust’ goes, “with us the world feels voluptuous”; with Wild Beasts that sentiment couldn’t be truer.
Listen to ‘Wanderlust’ from Present Tense here:
