It probably says more about me than anything else that The Wire was the only reason If ever really thought of Baltimore before I wrapped my ears around Future Islands (facebook/twitter) – but now I’ve got something far more exquisite for which to remember it.
Sam’s vocals are as distinct and often romantic, with the the band has slowing the tempo from last year’s critically acclaimed In The Evening Air, allowing the songs to find solace in lush soundscapes. This is a record where the Baltimore trio grown up, refined their musical expression, but allow the songs to ebb and flow like the imagery of the sea.
Balance remains a near perfect pop song, but much of the album is a little less upbeat. It is the smouldering synth lines and understated rhythms that define this record – minimal and yet never sparse. Give Us The Wind is the epitome of this new comfort, this grand fragility. It reaches out, open palmed and full of child-like wonder – ready for your nostalgic embrace.
Alexei Berrow, in speaking about his band’s new record, has made a point of saying that its title came well before anything else did. The last two years have been rather difficult for Johnny Foreigner (facebook/twitter), and their courage in the face of adversity has been remarkable. You get the feeling that it really has been them versus everything: a damaging album leak for ‘Grace and the Bigger Picture’; an acrimonious split with Best Before Records; a US tour with Los Campesinos! that drove them even deeper into the red; and of course, the pressure of ‘having to make a way better record for a way worse budget’.
Another thing Berrow has been at pains to point out is that Johnny Foreigner vs Everything is pretty much what the band have sounded like in their heads, and how they’ve poured everything they possibly could into it, and how “if it fails IRL, then it does so as proof we just aren’t good enough”. Wow. Talk about high stakes. The band (Berrow, Kelly Southern and the impressively-monikered Junior Elvis Washington Laidley) don’t need to worry, though – they’ve only gone and made their best album to date – and I’m placing specific emphasis on the word “album”. The debut was a collection of (very good) songs, in the way most debuts are; Grace… was leaner, more quick-firing and immediate, but it didn’t work as a cohesive whole as well as it should have.
Their third album, meanwhile, was specifically written as one. Broken into three parts, each consisting of five songs separated by pieces of musique concrète, helpfully titled Concret1 and Concret2, it places greater importance on structure. Unlike Grace…, which tended to come off as scatter-shot at times, from the moment If I’m the Most Famous Boy You’ve Fucked, Then Honey, Yr In Trouble comes racing out of the traps, there is a palpable sense that the band know exactly what they’re doing. Berrow’s lyrics are even more incisive than before: “You know how jealous exes get, you never stood a chance / Yr old friends talk about it (they’re convinced that it was planned) / For all yr blushing sentiment, they’ll never understand / You take the chance to get out while you can”.
Themes are established quite early on in the album: If I’m the Most Famous Boy… links to songs like Jess, You Got Yr Song, So Leave and the devastating album version of Johnny Foreigner vs You in creating the theme of relationships; and Hulk Hoegaarden, Gin Kinsella, David Duvodkany, Etc. finds counterparts in Electricity vs. the Dead and Supermorning in documenting the band’s Los Campesinos!-assisted US jaunt.
It’s clear that a lot of work went into structuring the record as well. Easily their most diverse album to date, it’s one on which the spiky power-pop of What Drummers Get can slot in next to the slow-burning New Street, You Can Take It without batting an eyelid, before the album comes out the other side of Concret2 with Don’t Show Us Yr Fangs, an electro-pop song (of sorts) that is the closest the band have come to the pre-Kelly, We Left You Sleeping and Gone Now days in about six years.
This is an album that’s mostly forward-looking and forward-thinking, but the band aren’t averse to throwing in some references to older material, whether they be lyrical, as on acoustic closer Alternate Timelines Piling Up or musical: Doesn’t Believe in Angels is the answer to last year’s Robert Scargill Takes the Prize, with the same ukelele-and-Stylophone instrument setup, as well as (among other things) a chorus of “What if all we ever get is each other?”. It also contains one of the best hooks they’ve ever written and deserves to be a single.
The record is impossible to take in on first listen. Filled with peaks and troughs of all sorts – musical, lyrical, emotional (Johnny Foreigner vs You is arguably the most fragile they have ever sounded) – it’s a neat summation of everything they’ve ever done, simultaneously broadening their horizons considerably; much in the same way, in fact, as rip-roaring penultimate track The Swell / Like Neverwhere seems to encapsulate the spirit of the band – the fact that it kicks in with a classic Johnny Foreigner riff is merely the tip of the iceberg.
At almost an hour’s length, the brevity of Grace and the Bigger Picture has been swapped out for something that really feels like a journey. Their abilities to elate, devastate and tug at the heartstrings have been heightened, to the point where I can say with confidence that Johnny Foreigner have never sounded better. They have repeatedly said that they couldn’t be happier with how this record turned out – an opinion that will no doubt be echoed by their devoted fanbase, once they’ve come to terms with the Great Leap Forward that Johnny Foreigner vs Everything really is.
Johnny Foreigner – Johnny Foreigner vs Everything will be released on 7th November on Alcopop!
It’s rare to find an artist getting regular airplay on Radio 1 who I’m still interested in going to see live; even when I find a gem on Radio 1, they’ll generally be playing a sticky rock club venue supporting a excruciatingly boring headliner. Passionate Radio 1 listener I am not – it’s generally BBC 6 Music’s job to recommend bands I should see live. Benjamin Francis Leftwich is the artist that broke the rules on this point.
The past few months have seen Leftwich rise up through the ranks, releasing debut album ‘Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm’ in July and going from strength to strength ever since. His first full UK headline tour mostly sold out pre-sale, and the crowd at Norwich Arts Centre were positively excited. A weird mix of people had headed out to the show; some older, complete with Norfolk accents – others groups of girls only just passing the 14+ age restriction.
Two wonderful supports opened the evening, garnering unfaltering attention from an over-enthusiastic audience who had clearly already checked them out before coming along. First up was new Transgressive Management signing Monument Valley – A.K.A. Ned – followed by the completely exceptional Daughter, who we’ve been fans of since the beginning here at The Blue Walrus.
Leftwich comes on stage, guitar already in hand, fairy lights behind him and smoke billowing. “Alright, Norwich?” he says with a grin. The next fifty minutes are filled with beautiful, heartbreaking songs with an amazing textured quality to them. Ultimately, though, the power of Leftwich’s music lies in the lyrics, which are thought-provoking and well-established tales of love, religion and memory.
‘Pictures’, ‘Maps’ and ‘Atlas Hands’ were among my favourite tracks to hear live, and it was good to hear a couple of new tunes thrown in for good measure, hinting at a positive development for Leftwich beyond this first record. A remarkable gig and a gifted performer.
