Wombats: A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation
Chistmas has come early again this year in the form of the Wombats long-awaited debut album, A Guide To Love Loss & Desperation. Nearly a year after my initial love affair with the band, they’d begun to slip off my radar a bit after the luster of recent singles “Backfire At The Disco” and “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” wore off much faster than anticipated and the unveiling of an LP tracklist comprised almost entirely of tracks I’d heard before. My expectations weren’t low per se, but they definitely weren’t high, especially after a year in which bands with promising early singles consistently produced disappointing debut records (see: the Maccabees, Good Shoes, Air Traffic, et. al). But fucking fuck motherfuck, this is an amazing record.
The Wombats early singles established them as an endearing guitar-pop trio who made their money on wonderful three-part harmonies, playful anecdotal lyrics and blissful melodies, but somewhere along the line they apparently decided to evolve into a band of the motherfucking ROCK variety. I never would have classified them as such prior to the album, but the fact of the matter is, this shit does indeed rock. The amps are turned up to 11, the guitars are placed at the front of the mix and processed through heavy fuzz, and the three-piece generate more noise than you ever thought they had in them. These elements converge to give the tracks a truly visceral edge and inject the album with more vitality than perhaps any Britpop record since Silent Alarm. The mixing and production work is flawless, with the band’s new, heavier approach nicely complemented with just enough synthetic flourishes to give the band a polished, unique sound without overdoing it. Elements that would be overly-cute, even cloying (a capella intros, childrens choirs, Bridget Jones references) in another band’s catalog sound perfect and endearing in this context; the Wombats can do whatever the fuck they want as long as they keep kicking out jams of this caliber.
The brilliant production work and new recordings makes the fact that there are only three new tracks here a complete non-issue. Old favorites (”Moving To New York”, “Lost In The Post”, “My First Wedding”) take on wonderful new life in their reincarnations, promising demos (”School Uniforms”, “Dr. Suzanne Maddox”) come alive in technicolor in their finished versions and even aforementioned singles “Backfire” and “Joy Division” (which appear unchanged from their single releases) take on new worth and enjoyability in the context of the full record. Throughout the album, frontman Murph will win you over with his anecdotal lyrics of his romantic misadventures, and though he’s singing of failure and despair, there’s always a hint of a smile or a tongue planted firmly in cheek. Having experienced nothing but the album’s nominal themes of love, loss and desperation as a result of the opposite sex, it seems a whole cast of female antagonists (Laura, Susie, Patricia, Dr. Suzanne Maddox, even Bridget Jones) are conspiring against him. Rest assured though, he’ll have the last laugh. The trio’s uncanny ability to write harmonies in which backing vocals pop in and out of the mix with a mechanical precision at exactly the right time, coupled with the band’s combination of accessible riffs and addictive hooks, should bring them massive success in no time (and with massive success, of course, comes fly-ass honeys). All in all, this is the complete package… the Wombats have arrived. Debut of the year? You better fucking believe it.
MP3s:
“Moving To New York” (Album Version) - The Wombats ((highly recommended))
“School Uniforms” - The Wombats ((highly recommended))
Once again, alternate links for those of you having difficulty with the direct ones.
ALTERNATE LINKS (via zShare)
• “Moving To New York” (Album Version) - The Wombats
• “School Uniforms” - The Wombats
November 7th, 2007 at 1:39 am
damnnn its still not downloading the full song
November 7th, 2007 at 1:47 am
nice. i was hoping the wombats would come through. although i dont think this year has been as bad as you think. have there been some flops, yea… but Klaxons, Dartz!, Kubichek!, and now the Wombats have all released excellent debuts. I have a LOT of faith in both Cut Off Your Hands! and Foals to deliver as well, whenever they get around to releasing LP’s.
…and the DL problem is DEFINITELY still there. its not the end of the world though, it can be worked around, its just kinda time-consuming.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:05 am
I agree with every single thing in this review, though I have a question, Pull Tiger Tail have an album already???
November 7th, 2007 at 2:19 am
Good catch, I was thinking Good Shoes but managed to write Pull Tiger Tail instead.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:21 am
And yes, I know a lot of people loved the Good Shoes record, I just can’t count myself among them.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:12 am
Ill go and download, thanks for the heads up. Persoanlly i liked the maccabees album.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Haven’t heard this record yet but will check it now for sure.
I disagree re: the Maccabees album though
November 7th, 2007 at 6:46 am
by the way, what about “the royal we”? they have an album as well, i think.
“all the rage” was a quite funny song, thanks again
November 7th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Nah, I really enjoyed The Maccabees album, although, I can’t say the same for most other people who listened to it thinking about it. Maybe I was one of the rare ones, but then again, I was disappointed with Klaxons debut, too polished, it didn’t have the grittyness to it of their EP.
Anyway, which were the 3 new songs? The only song on the album I’ve never heard before was ‘Here Comes The Anxiety’, and ‘School Uniforms’ I only had a live version of. I’m disappointed with the lack of new tracks, but they have all the ones I love on here. This album > you.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
The maccabees and Good Shoes albums were great, as for Wombats gahh they are embarrasingly bad. The shockingly annoying dance to joy division song pretty much sums them up. But you know you can have your own opinion.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Fun album, really enjoying it so far. Agreed on the disappointing releases, save for Good Shoes.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Derek you’ve done it again. Spot on on everything you’ve said with big exception to the Maccabees album, i’d have to say it was one of my favourite records of the year.
Its an interesting turn of style from The Wombats but I actually quite like it, so much so I featured it in this weeks Anablogue episode, my podcast about mp3 blogs.
http://anablogueradio.blogspot.com
Thanks for the post matey, keep it up,
Andy
PS I’m still recoiling after the ‘kids choir’ bit in Joy Division. Shudder.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I’m not too impressed with the new version of Moving To New York. Less punchy and wayyy overproduced compared to the demo you posted here first time round. Hope they haven’t butchered Lost In The Post…
November 7th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Fucking awesome - an album that lives up to their live show. They have finally released an album and I have to agree it doesn’t disappoint at all. Yes most of the songs I have heard before, but they do have a different feel to them. I better post a proper review over at TBW tomorrow all I’ll fall even further behind.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
maccabees album was great, but i can definatley agree the wombats are also great too
November 8th, 2007 at 7:35 am
i dont really like the wombats, but i saw them live and their not so bad, the problem with their shows are you have to wade over a crowd full of kids to get anywhere. the albums alright though, mastered versions are so much better than the e.p stuff i have.
p.s - dartz! and kubichek are quality bands. and good shoes too.
November 8th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I love The Maccabees album. It was probably my favorite of this year. (Not including The Wombats.)
November 11th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
It’s only downloading about 8 secs of it =( this happened with the Live Daft Punk too. Luckily I got that off of a friend =)
November 11th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, use the alternate links if the direct ones don’t work. I’m not sure how I could possibly be more clear about that, I guess it would be helpful if people actually read the post though.
November 11th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
i absolutely adore the wombats. their lyrics are so catchy and chock full of clever quips. although i must say i find the school uniforms version from the bbc radio session a tad more captivating.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Are you stupid? The Wombats, and mainly there single Joy division, shows off one of the most energetic and wity melody i’ve ever heard.
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