Had a Whale of a Time

Their name says it all really, Noah and the Whale, a quirky indie-folk band from London, England, with upbeat songs and heartfelt lyrics. Lead singer Charlie Fink sings of tales of the heart over a mish-mash of acoustic guitars, fiddles and even some ukeles here and there. The backing vocals are that of Laura Marling, fellow indie-folk artist and once member of the band. Who is now working on a solo career, a very successful one might I add.

Each song tells a story, usually of love loss, with a clever metaphor that is witty, yet still heart felt. “When the baby’s born, lets turn it to the snow, so that ice will surely grow over weak and brittle bones.” It’s lines like that, that make me think of a nursery rhyme gone wrong, but Mr. Finks lyrics aren’t all of freezing babies. He actually goes on to say “the world can be kind in its own way” and its obvious that he doesn’t enjoy writing malicious poetry about killing children, but uses clever metaphors to get across his points and opinions about life, and that should be admired.

Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down, is the name of the album and even the title reflects the type of band Noah and the Whale is. All eleven tracks on the CD seem to glitter along, each song getting better than the rest and each song full of some form of dramatic irony that should make the listener, well listen, but in awe. Before I ordered the album, I was expecting some type of simple, Folksy CD. After hearing 5 Years Time, the song that quickly gained the band much success in America, I was expecting the rest of the album to be like that song, and I would have been happy with that. Its obvious though, that although 5 years Time is a good song, the band has a lot more to offer then just simple and witty music.

The best way I can describe Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down, is that its sort of like a series of emotions. Each song has a different feel to it and the album sort of givesoff a type of mood. After listening to the album entirely for the first time, it left me with a good feeling, the type of feeling good music is suppose to leave someone with. Noah and The Whale are obviously a talented group of artists, and anyone who respects good writers should defiantly buy the album, even if its just to read the lyrics, but you would be missing out if you only did that.

The band creates scratchy, heartfelt and raw music. Its not for anyone who is a fan of manufactured pop, because its quite the opposite. The album is a series of feelings and moods, each song tells a story that makes up an earnest and honest album. As brilliant as the album may be, I still think NATW have a long way to go, and for a freshman album, they show that they have the potential and raw talent that most bands only dream about achieving.