Guillemots New Album, Contest Winner
Yeah, it took me a long time to announce the winner of the Guillemots prize pack contest, and yeah, I’m sorry, but the goods are still available and the time has finally come to announce the lucky winner. Congratulations are in order for none other than “Lodi C”, who will be receiving the fabulous Guillemots t-shirt dress, as well as a copy of the ‘Motts debut From The Cliffs EP and an autographed copy of the beautiful vinyl double-gatefold edition of the EP. Lodi, you’ve been contacted via e-mail, congrats.
As for those of you who didn’t win, don’t throw your laptop across the room in a jealous rage just yet; there’s still some Guillemots downloadable goodness to be salvaged in this post. The band’s debut LP dropped earlier this month, and while it wasn’t quite the album of the year that I had hoped it would be, it’s still one of the year’s elite releases and the best debut of 2006. While none of the new, non-EP tracks are able to top the unparalleled bliss achieved by “Trains To Brazil” (though to be fair, no other song this year has been able to either), the LP has it’s fair share of amazing new songs, the best of which are title-track “Through The Windowpane” and “Annie, Let’s Not Wait”, with that little stuttering keyboard effect in the former being one of the sonic highlights of the album. When it comes to Guillemots’ music, I’ve always much-prefered their more upbeat tracks, and unfortunately Through The Windowpane is heavy on the slower ballad-type songs (though that is by no means to say they aren’t good as well), but every track on the album serves to show the innovation of the group’s musicianship, and first and foremost, the absolutely incredible range and power of lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield’s unbelievable voice. Album closer “Sao Paolo”, which the band regularly uses to close their live sets as well, is a shining example of Dangerfield’s amazing songwriting ability and the band’s aforementioned ingenuity, testing one’s patience with it’s 11+ minutes run-time but ultimately rewarding the listener with it’s powerful “thrown across water” refrain that begins at the seven minute mark and eventually erupts into an impromptu latin jam session that nods to the song’s title and guitarist Lord Mangrao’s Brazilian heritage. This band’s future couldn’t be brighter, and I cherish the mere idea that I will someday be able to witness their brilliance live. Keep an eye out for another Guillemots-related treat coming in the very near future, but for now enjoy these three gems from the new album.
MP3s:
“Through The Windowpane” - Guillemots ((highly recommended))
“Annie, Let’s Not Wait” - Guillemots
“Sao Paolo” - Guillemots
July 28th, 2006 at 1:00 am
OMG, I’m sooooo happy and thrilled; I’ve never won anything as important as this! Thank you guys, and thanks to Guillemots!
July 29th, 2006 at 5:22 am
Bah. Ah well, good to see the album review, picked it up on the day of release. Going to see them live at Reading, should be one of the highlights there for me.
July 30th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
i was fortunate enough to see them perform sao paolo back in may, and it was, without a doubt, a fantastically powerful show-closer. it built and built like a steam engine and by the end of the song it was so intense that the whole band just about exploded.
August 8th, 2006 at 12:50 am
I reviewed From the Cliffs earlier this year. I had no idea they had released their debut LP. It’s probably not available in New Zealand yet. My review is on my blog.