“The Maccabees” An Indie Music Wild-card?
Album: Given to the Wild
Released: 9th of January, 2012
Genre: Alternative
Label: Fiction Records
Given to the Wild was released by Fiction Records on the 9th of January. It is the work of a 5-piece band from London. With Orlando Weeks on Vocals and Guitar, Hugo White on Guitar, Felix White on Backing Vocals and Guitar, Rupert Jarvis playing Bass and Sam Doyle on Drums, they are slowly but surely making their way to the top of the indie ladder.
There is something incredibly admirable about The Maccabees’ slow rise to the indie forefront. In 2006 the indie genre was flying high; Arctic Monkeys were about to release their breakthrough album, The Strokes were set to return, The Killers were maturing, Hot Chip were experimenting, while Muse were about to take over the world. It was an exciting time, but young hardworking bands found themselves either hastily shot into the limelight, destined to crash and burn, or forced to toil away in the background. Luckily for us, The Maccabees’ 3 album, 5-year toil has paid off.
Given to the Wild finds The Maccabees fully embracing a new, expansive and epic instrumental sound. The Maccabees may have switched producers, this time guided by hipster producer Tim Goldsworthy, formerly of DFA Records, but despite a new name in the mix, they keep the same sound on their third album…deploying their signature lyrical repetition, complex arrangements and precise mix of brass, samples and drums. This is the sort of epic baroque pop that works perfectly at festivals but which succeeds just as well blaring through your record speakers.
Everything on this record seems familiar and uplifting. Songs such as Child find Orlando Weeks singing in the falsetto style of Chris Martin, and mixed to sound even more ethereal.Child offers an endearing sense of spacious tranquility before succumbing to a tidal wave of infectious danceable horns.
Coldplay and U2 do loom large on the album, The Edge’s guitar work and Chris Martin’s sudden rush of colour are obvious ingredients in Given To The Wild. The track Glimmerreferences the sound of Coldplay most obviously. Still, if The Maccabees’ influences are easy to spot, they don’t dampen an album of sensuous textures and beautiful understatement.
However, it doesn’t take long to work out the structure of almost every track on the album, with the quiet intro – loud finish method becoming the trademark. Another weak point for the band is the difficulty for the listener to really differentiate between melodies and even entire songs, under the narrow lines of Orlando Weeks’ vocal register. There is a definite lull in the middle of the album, but with a great start and finish, one tends to forgive them for this. Given to the Wild is far from perfect. Sometimes the ideas are too much, are unfinished and are crushed under the weight of the album’s ambitious agenda. A with 14 epic tracks, the final being an eight and a half minute video track, perhaps the album is a tad too long.
Given To The Wild is full of unexpected turns and dramatic flourishes. At its best, as the enlivening rush of Feel To Follow gives way to the conflicting textures and inspiring swells ofAyla, The Maccabees strike a balance between layered beauty and irrepressible frenzy. Given To The Wild may wear its influences on its sleeve, but it deserves to be admired in its own right as a remarkably diverse yet coherent piece of work that refuses to stand still, and refuses to tick any one box. At heart, The Maccabees’ latest offering may lack any clear standout tunes and a truly individual voice, but I found myself hitting play over and over, wanting to experience its rich and inspiring rewards one more time.
I give it 4 out of 5 kisses.
Copyright 2012 – Written by Amy Bastow for the “Kiss My Arts” show on Joy 94.9 – Monday evenings. 9pm.
