Wild Beasts - Limbo Panto

i like!

singing on the far side of moz/rufus wainwright overwrought + clever arranging + airy, echoey production

Prefered their first demos CD. The production on the album is a little off.

heh Enrique indiesnob! ;)

one of my favourite releases of this year. it's really something else. hate the singer's moustache though.

v interesting! sounds like morrissey + scott walker + other things i cant put my finger on. 2 songs in

[i suppose k3vin k and myself found this via the quietus eoy list?]. yeah, this is a terrific album. not all the songs are great but at least they don't sound like every other UK indie band. the vocals remind me of antony and russell mael. the lyrics are terrific - weird and fatalistic.

This is pure pleasure to listen to.

Word is the new one is meant to be even better.

First single:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2009/jun/17/wild-beasts-hooting-howling

Starts quite promisingly, turned it off before the end. STOP REPEATING THE SONG-TITLE AD NAUSEAM IT IS A GROSS AND STUPID HABIT

Also, that riff gets very irritating.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VNHsk82pL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Kinda looking forward to hearing this. Wasn't sure about the first one, quite liked the Billy Mackenzie-isms, but thought the music could have been a bit more ambitious to match. Having said that, have hammered 'His Grinning Skull' to death, which I guess is as bog-standard indie as they come, sonics-wise.

Am really enjoying the new one.

The production is lovely. The guitars are kinda reminiscent of the slower numbers on Foals' Antidotes. At least to my ears.

wow that was really good

Wonderful album. Probably going to be up there as best British album of the year unless something unexpected pops up.

a new one already? wow that's fast. looking forward to it.

New one would appear to be streaming via the NME:

http://www.nme.com/news/wild-beasts--2/46335

This is all very pleasant and even harmonious to listen to (track 4 especially) but I doubt I'll be returning much to it.

"two dancers ii" and "all the king's men" are WONDERFUL.

"all the king's men" was quite good I guess and there was one near the end I liked too but hmm.

"two dancers ii" and "all the king's men" are WONDERFUL.

Just listening now. These are both Tommy songs aren't they? He had the best two on the first album as well IMO (Devil's Crayon and His Grinning Skull).

ok this is batshit insane, kudos!

they've never made anything better than "brave bulging buoyant clairvoyants" and this new stuff sounds like the younger brothers of the guillemots

yeah but i like the guillemots

funny how this band suffers from XTC-syndrome. quirky so-called "lead" singer overshadowed by bassists better songwriting!

loving "two dancers"

wow you guys could give two shits about this band. i'm freaking out over here.

This gets better with repeat listens. Last two tracks especially good. Maintain that 'The Old Dog' from the first album is their best song.

It's brilliant. Stunning. Uber. only went in at 68 on album charts :-(

"Hooting & Howling" still irritates me. "When I'm Sleepy" is a beautiful little song that deserves to be 3x as long as it is. Rest is growing, as I say.

the last track is truly a remarkable thing

yar it is pretty awes

Just got it yesterday. Am liking the first few songs, then it all seems to fizzle out a bit. I want to like it though, am hoping all will be revealed over time.

second side is a grower.

second side better than the first

from the title track (two dancers i and ii) until the end

shit this gets exponentially better with every listen, 'this is our lot' being the new discovery

also the reason it only got to no. 68 in the chance? Begins with S, ends with y, and has 'potif' in the middle.

Charts, even. o_O

they don't sound similar to much else out there, besides certain lapses into early U2 guitar jangle. i think "this is our lot" mostly does this.

i loved the hell out of the first one, keep forgetting to pick this up!

Cutty, I know what you mean about U2, it's been reminding me of that 80s stadium rock thing too. Sounds a bit like Interpol too in parts. These are the bits I'm shying away from at the moment tbh.

despite being a jammy bastard and getting a promo of this a while back, had to go buy it on vinyl too. i cant quite put my finger on why i like it so much and reason tells me i should be a bit bored of it by now. but i'm not. pitchfork better give it mad props.

who cares what pitchfork says

well i hope they give it a good review for the bands benefit and because a lot more people would love it if it got some nice U.S. based press.

hurrah. 8.4 and a best new music. works for me.

everything u wanted bro

Kinda irks me that the PF review says they're from Leeds.

Leeds is 100 miles from Kendal (where they're actually from).

We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues was absolutely *phenomenal* live, and the rest wasn't far behind (This Is Our Lot being maybe the pick)

going to see them tonight.

...and this was in a big tent, with festival production values. my friend said that this was 'really good, and maybe about half as good as when i saw them at a club' so you're in for a treat! although they didn't play 'through the iron gate' or 'the old dog'. ah well. 'hooting & howling' grows on me every time i hear it btw

also i was not expecting the two singers to exchange lead/backing parts, electric/bass guitar and keys with such unpredictable dexterity

Going to see them next month. I only recently bought a ticket after they'd been on sale for a few weeks and I still got given ticket number 001. No pushing at the front please.

i'm kind of enjoying the butt-rock touches

i dunno man. you're right though.. i need to stay away from it and re-listen in 6 months. i think the Pitch4k review nails it

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22139-boy-king/

I don't hate the new album but I'm so disappointed in how much they've fallen off since Smother. First two records are perfect and Smother is really great but they've completely lost me on these latest two. Even the best songs on these albums don't come anywhere near the quality of their earlier albums.

That Pitchfork review is just about spot on. 6.8 is pretty generous though.

It's their Hot Space

The first album is horrific imo other than Devil's Crayon. Two Dancers was where they really got it together, Smother was a continuation and then the two most recent ones are merely OK.

The first album is horrific imo other than Devil's Crayon

i can see that album would jar greatly if you don't like the particular histrionics on it but HIS GRINNING SKULL is surely the best song they ever made

(i don't know why i shouted that song title, sorry if that sounded hostile)

They haven't duetted properly since Smother, have they?

I liked all four tracks they previewed, when heard in isolation, but the album as a whole is seriously underwhelming me :(

'Smother' is their peak for me ...

finally saw these guys last night, pretty great show and a nice escape from the overwhelming sadness and existential dread of the day

the baritone singer completely stole the show, what a set of pipes on that one!

the boy king tracks sounded good live, though they were kinda hamming it up while performing them. for me wild beasts has always had a sophisticated swagger but here they were miming cock-rock tropes, complete with jackson guitar finger tapping and some crotch thrusting

I saw them a month or so ago and the 'Boy King' songs came across as if they were made for playing live - more direct and forceful. Was an excellent show.

RIP Wild Beasts. A shock but also somehow inevitable after the last album. At their peak they were extraordinary. I guess we all have our favourite moment..
Upload your favourite moment here!

https://youtu.be/H3xlfrlsLJo

I played Two Dancers yesterday for the first time in a few years, it’s still completely fantastic.

Why inevitable? Boy King never stuck with me and seemed a step in the wrong direction but it wasn't something they couldn't have recovered from. Sad

A shame, those first two records are forever.

the first four are forever. my favorite group of the period I think. shame.

I at least liked all their albums tbh. I caught them on the Smother tour and they were very good.

I'm with you, Gospodin. At this point I'll wait for the inevitable reformation and return to form.

That's a shame that they've gone out on such a weak album. I think they got worse with each release, but those first two are absolutely perfect. Smother is great too, but isn't quite in the same league as Limbo Panto and Two Dancers. The last two albums were totally forgettable. I was hoping they'd be able to regain my interest somehow.

Their b-sides were so good, hope they do a comp

I saw them on the 'Boy King' tour and thought the songs from that album made quite a bit more sense live - like they were more direct and streamlined and likely to come across better on the festival circuit. Was a very good gig, pretty well balanced set.

Two Dancers and Smother are absolute, stone cold classics. Present Tense is very good. Limbo Panto is pretty good. Boy King didn't know where to go; it also broke the narrative arc - onanistic adolescents, whooping lads on the town, falling in love/ infatuation, domestic bliss. Midlife crisis? I'm sad. Great band, fabulous live. And yes, some cracking b sides. Thankless Thing!

They're releasing one last EP of Boy King outtakes, which guess makes this their last newly released song

https://open.spotify.com/track/6b3HeQ00jtHHG9hBU92atJ

New interview with Hayden doesn't really shed any light on the reason behind the split

Final shows tonight, tomorrow and Saturday; Dublin, Manchester, and London.

Q posted their final interview earlier; quite sweet this. Kinda poignant too obviously

https://www.qthemusic.com/articles/wild-beasts-this-is-the-end-my-friends

One for the Rock Stars Who Went Back To Work thread; one's a roofer now, one is training in accountancy.

We're all quiffed and cropped,
This is our lot,
We hold each other up heavy with hops.

This Is Our Lot is so fucking good.

Hayden's new thing

https://divinerdiviner.com/

New song

https://youtu.be/4uPHw6zFpto

Try that again ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uPHw6zFpto

I like this a lot. It sounds exactly like you'd expect a WBs solo offshoot to sound like, but in a good way.

Hey, that's really good! Looking forward to this after the final album, which is decidedly not my cup of tea.

So the Hayden Thorpe solo album is out. It's pretty mellow, lots of voice + piano + small touches. I must admit I miss the voice of Tom Fleming as the counterpoint to Hayden's falsetto. I've only listened to it once and it feels like a grower, we'll see.

I’ve listened to it once and really liked it. Can see it as a grower and also as not being a record for all moods. It’s not Wild Beasts but it doesn’t feel like a radical departure either.

Tom Fleming's current project is One True Pairing: https://onetruepairing.bandcamp.com/ - first album is fun if a bit derivative, latest EP is voice and guitar.

Hayden Thorpe has a new album out as well: https://haydenthorpe.bandcamp.com/album/moondust-for-my-diamond

revisited them earlier today and man I miss these guys

wish they had more songs like Reach A Bit Further where they just had Hayden and Tom trading lead vocals back and forth

Yeah they seemed to lose the magic in the end but still felt like their split was rushed. Not sure any of them will ever capture that magic again

Two Dancers and Smother are practically faultless. Present Tense is very good. I remember almost nothing about Boy King, sadly. I wish they’d taken the Smother aesthetic further, rather than reaching for synthesisers and maximalism.

sorry this goes against what you just said but this is a great performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUwVD6nQ6pM

https://haydenthorpe.bandcamp.com/album/ness Coming Sept 27.

So mental to me that this band that started so promising did such wrong to themselves. Their initial mix of Kate Bush+Happy Mondays+Orange Juice-Associates was SO perfect. Why would you then push so hard toward nothingness? Every album more bland and average indie than the last one. I really fucking hate them for it.

I dunno, they changed their sound for sure but I think you're overstating the shift, still some keepers on their later albums and I'd still take them over most of their peers

Yeah they stayed brilliant while trying out new angles. They lost the plot on the last two records

Thought Two Dancers was decent enough at the time but what Eyeball Kicks says does resonate with me

Thought Two Dancers was decent enough at the time

Yeah me too, I listened to it loads, but my message was prompted by putting it on for the first time in 10 years a couple of nights ago, and side 1 was just so... okay, so plain. I didn't bother turning it over.

I haven't listened to Limbo Panto in 15 years or something, mind you. Maybe I am misremembering how great it was!

Yeah I've not been back, but it had a magic to it that surely can't have faded?

It's funny these this thread got revived with something I've been thinking about recently. I had the vinyl of the first two albums and saw they were going for a decent amount so I decided to sell them last month. They were one of my favourite bands in the world for those first three albums, but the magic has disappeared somewhere along the way.

Even at the time it was diminishing returns with the albums. I bought that fourth album and sold it pretty quickly. The last album was so weak I didn't even pick it up. Not sure what they were going for there at all.

I think they should have just kept doing variations of Smother. Going more abstract rather than pivoting to synth pop