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This August’s celebrated follow-up, The First Days of Spring, chronicled songwriter Charlie Fink’s 2008 break-up with fellow nu-folker Laura Marling. Naturally, the story comes with some degree of artistic embellishment, but the resulting concept album takes the listener on a surprisingly affecting journey, winning the band plenty of new fans (and alienating those desperate for ‘5 Years Time II’) in the process.
Jovial bassist Urby Whale – Matt Owens in the real world – is sympathetic to the ‘5 Years Time’ lovers, but emphasises it’s just “one of many songs” from a debut which leapt to the top 5, and isn’t ever-present in their live sets anymore: “obviously the song has a memorable quality, but on the day we play the songs we want to play. “Without wanting to sound ridiculous, at some festivals, the line-up had such an amazing musical kudos we thought there were other songs to suit the crowd better.”
Most of Noah and the Whale’s influences are unsurprisingly rooted in folk and Americana, but the ambience of Talk Talk and experimentation of John Cage have been most effective in providing the overarching feel of space running through The First Days of Spring. Percussion and prepared piano are set against gentle guitars provide instrumental sections between vocals, identifying the album as a journey through emotions, from despair to optimism: “our intention with the album was to make a body of work from beginning to end. You can never underestimate what people will like, and although we’re happy for people to download individual tracks, a lot of people still just want to listen to a great album.”
As well as the album, an accompanying film, also called The First Days of Spring, was released simultaneously. It was very much Charlie Fink’s own work, so Urby was “just barbecue man number one” on the set, but he sings the praises of Fink’s “amazing” work, which has a separate narrative to the album, whilst covering many of the same themes. Its style complements the album, with sweeping visuals and audio inspired by the likes of Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack to There Will Be Blood, and Terence Davies’ homage to Liverpool Of Time and the City.
The dual release of album and film has had critics declaring Noah and the Whale a changed band, but Urby is quick to dismiss talk of a revolution: “Charlie’s the songwriter, so in the early days he would arrive with ideas and we would take them through a series of evolutions until they were ready to be recorded. Even with such overtly personal songs, we still work the same as ever; we just try to serve them as best we can.”
“Of course, we have changed, but all my favourite bands are constantly changing, and we’re exactly like that,” Urby insists. “There hasn’t ever been a sudden shift in what we do, but we’ve listened to new things, got new gear and had new experiences, so it would be unnatural to be putting out an identical record now. All we’d ask of any of our favourite bands is for them to put out the best record they possibly can at a given time, and I hope we’ve managed that here. I mean, if a band can’t do what they want, who can?”
Six weeks since its release, The First Days of Spring sounds like an album the band are right to be proud of, and with Urby’s promise of another new and different album on the not-too-distant horizon, Noah and the Whale certainly don’t seem to be running out of steam quite yet.
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