Wild Beasts
Limbo, Panto
Rating: 3.5
Label: Domino
It’s odd to think that an indie rock group like Wild Beasts has only put out one album. With a distinct sound and apparent vision, they appear to have skipped the teething process and moved straight into manhood, though that is an interesting word in relation to the group. Out of the UK, Wild Beasts most visible idiosyncrasy is in Hayden Thorpe’s monstrously impressive falsetto voice that accompanies bizarre and grim lyrics like that of “His Grinning Skull”, and tender ones in “Through Dark Night” straining out “I’m a goose pimpled God!“
Hayden’s voice is a perfect blend of falsetto and vocal chord-breaking strained screeching. It stretches, it lambastes and it floats like a feather. There is a moment when you find yourself waiting for when he stretches a soft high note and stretches it from howl to growl. His vocal performance is sexy and dirty that tends to command your attention like a glam rock performance. He’s melodramatic and complex.
It’s hard to say what might happen if you took away the band behind Hayden. They bring what sounds like the status quo of indie pop, taking hints from David Byrne and Vampire Weekend, while other times showing cognition of afrobeat, jazz, and glam rock. “The Devil’s Crayon” is almost danceable. Hell, I danced to it. Its clicking and pounding happy drumming make almost every song of the 10 just a little slow for dance hit. Sometimes it’s the soulful guitar juxtaposed with the drum line. Other times it’s a finagling of minor chords to make a cheerful sound. They have the ability to sound like a musical, a cabaret show, or even briefly punk rock.
The indescribable aspect of Limbo, Panto is in the unabashedly cabaret moments of the album. Wild Beasts clearly have been at least slightly influenced by Boy George, Ziggy Stardust or the likes. There is a marked intelligence to the album that drives it forward after the first few listens; with a first impression of chipper tones and interesting beats, the settling lyricism remaining is as sharp as a dark comedy and as intriguing.
Limbo, Panto contains a few songs notably literate and poetic. “His Grinning Skull” is as hauntingly sinister as Poe and equally gory as, well, Gorey. I do believe Edgar and Edward would be proud. “Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants,” alliteration aside, is an a modern take on A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, claiming, “To make the most, before we turn to ghost/ Swig the bottle, bottle/ Slap the face of Aristotle.” There is a bitter and depressed undertone to the Wild Beasts that make them rich and complex. Much like Shakespeare’s fools are the most wise, Hayden’s Wild Beasts seem silly and bouncy until you take the time to appreciate their vision as a whole.
by Edmond Stansberry
