No Need To Be Downhearted

REPOST: July 2007

... is the title of The Electric Soft Parade's third full length album. It was released a couple months ago over here by Better Looking records.

I don't do this often, but I really have to share with you a few reasons why for me this is almost certainly going to turn out to be the best album of 2007. By a ways.

Electric Soft Parade are Thom White (lead vocals and guitar) and Alex White (lead vocals, guitar and keyboards) who together are the driving force and founders, joined by the two Mats -- Matthew Twaites on bass (who as well as being a kickass bass player is cuter than a button) and Matthew Priest on drums (who as well as keeping the backline thumping used to play for the UK indie band 'Dodgy', and who is also cute, but not like a button is cute).





I wrote a blog a while back when these guys were in town and played a couple shows. one at Boardner's and one at Spaceland (pictured above). They also did a set for Nic Harcourt's show on KCRW that you can check out here.

At that time it was the first time I had really heard the new material (aside from the show I caught a couple months earlier at Spaceland), and now I've had a chance to let it settle in I'm ready to tell you why you should go buy this album.

This band has always been innovative. Even early on when they were more 'indie guitar' oriented, at the time of their first album Holes In the Wall, there would be, alongside the catchy indie pop perfection of 'Something's Got To Give', 'Empty At The End' and 'There's A Silence', to name but three, absolute genius tracks that pushed boundaries like the nine minute album version of 'Silent To The Dark', and the rocked out intro song 'Start Again'.

Their second album did not do so well. They were less concerned here about pop catchiness and developed their sound with far more interesting and unusual songs, but where the song structures were less obvious and less accessible. Nonetheless there are amazing tracks -- the totally rocking opener 'Bruxellisation', and 'Lose Yr Frown' are two that come right to mind, as well as the epic 'American Adventure' itself.

Then came 'The Human Body' EP (though at 7 tracks, it's heftier than most EPs, and has more tracks than most Marillion albums ever did). This previews the sound they achieve on the new album (indeed, Cold World, more of which later) is featured here and on the new album. My favorite track here is 'Stupid Mistake', but I digress.

I'm here to tell you about....

No Need To Be Downhearted marks the pinnacle so far. In this third album they don;t give up on anything they've achieved, effortlessly blending the perfect pop tunes that catch your consciousness and stick there -- but in such a good way -- with more thoughtful and deeper material where the chord progressions and song structure for a second there really make you think something might be wrong, before resolving and leaving you feeling embarrassed for having doubted even for a moment.

Their influences are wide and varied. It's hard to pick out individual bands that have contributed to their sound -- the chord progressions sound like nothing I've heard before, but there are times where you think you might be hearing the best parts of some of your favorite old school UK indie bands. Never enough to be sure, but wasn't that like something off The Stone Roses' first album (Appropriate Ending) or was that there from something off an early Ride track (Come Back Inside)?

The most accesible song is probably 'If That's The Case Then I Don't Know" -- it's amazing live and amazing recorded too. It was a single and has a driving high guitar sound tearing at you from the outset, accompanied by piercing but minimal keyboard punches, complimented by a more 'rock' riff, kicking in after a couple measure or so, that just grabs and doesn't let go. "If that's the case then I don't know, but that's about as deep as I go", goes the lyric over the top of this blend.

Then there is the wonderful 'Misunderstanding' -- the second single which features a simple but beautiful and brilliant double vocal part overlaid on one another and a measure behind -- which when performed live emphasizes the importance of Tom having come out from behind the drums (where he ;played the first album's worth of tours at least) to jointly front the band with Alex. These vocals work incredibly well recorded, but are just as haunting and wonderful live.

'Cold World/Starry Night' is another pop tune, gets catchier every time you ehar it, and features off-beat punchy guitar hits over driving piano and adds some classic almost 'lounge' vocal backing in the breakdown, just for good measure. Nobody has done this in forever. Ba da da! Fucking genius. Better than the Beatles. And then just when you think you have it pegged, they meld into a far heavier rocked out ending that gets out out of your chair.

Probably the best indication of their range -- it's not all pop-rock indie thrills and frills, not that there would be anything wrong with that -- are songs like 'Woken By A Kiss' and the two part title song 'No Need To Be Downhearted'. I strongly recommend you check out the archived live set at KRCW to check out the live version of 'No Need To Be Downhearted part 2' they did as part of that set.





These all have interesting structures, sound like they are departing a little form the theme at points but in the end blend with the rest of what is here on the album. The best of the bunch is....

'Woken By A Kiss' starts with an almost dischord jarring guitar sequence, over a slow kick drum pattern. This intro blurs into a verse where the melodies and sound reminds me of tracks off Blur's first album, before a stripped down chorus showcasing the vocal, and which sounds not quite like anything in the rest of the song, but that fits perfectly well with the rest of the song. After this structure has barely a chance to settle, the song goes somewhere else entirely, and is off into it's second and then third 'movements'. by the third movement the discord riff is back, but now it's heavier and backed with faster drums and a piercing screaming keyboard sound that drives to a crescendo.

The only recent band that has routinely been able to pull off this kind of shit is Muse. But these guys do it here and it totally works.

So,

... go buy this album. You won't regret it.