Breaking-up with someone you love is never easy, but what’s bad for the heart can be good for your art. The sophomore album from intriguingly monikered English indie folksters Noah And The Whale – 2009’s The First Days Of Spring – was a regretful, melancholic and introspective affair, obviously inspired by the messy break-up of frontman Charlie Fink’s long-term relationship.
On the evidence of this fairly short (33 minutes) third long-player, Fink is finally getting over his heartbreak. Sounding decidedly more upbeat than the last NATW outing, Last Night On Earth – the title taken from Bukowski’s poetry collection The Last Night of the Earth – definitely sounds like his ‘moving-on’ album. Which isn’t to presume the songs are autobiographical, but both the opening and closing tracks hint at a heartbroken man who has taken a good hard look at himself, self-improved, and decided that he can continue on in life happily enough alone.
The album begins with the gloriously synthy ‘Life Is Life’: “He used to be somebody/ and now he’s someone else/ He took apart his old life/ and left it on the shelf... he’s going to change his ways.” Whatever way that worked out, on closing track ‘Old Joy’, he sings, “Forget the things that get away/ Don’t dream of yesterday.”
There’s lots of good stuff in between. Co-produced by Fink and Jason ‘Mars Volta’ Lader, the band’s soft folky-electro sound benefits from the addition of a gospel choir on key tracks. Elsewhere, the record features Adam MacDougall of The Black Crowes on Moog and Rhodes, and the beats of legendary percussionist Lenny Castro. For the most part, Fink sings more like Tom Petty than a bloke from Twickenham, but that’s not necessarily a complaint. The possibly autobiographical theme continues with ‘Give It all Back’, which details the birth of a band rehearsing in their parents’ front rooms. Meanwhile, a track like ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.’, about a groupie chick getting her life together, is pure C&W storytelling.
Overall, a fairly optimistic, joyous and musically assured release from one of the UK’s more interestingly offbeat acts.