Review: Other Lives – ‘Tamer Animals’

Westerns always start with that same long shot. The tiny figure of a lone rider approaches, contrasted against a vast landscape; mountains, deserts, plains stretching on forever.

That rider seems so small, and the world around him so big. That moment, that imagery, that complete sense of inner peace surrounds and permeates ‘Tamer Animals‘, creating something that, perhaps for the first time in a long time, presents the next step up from Ennio Morricone.

The hallmarks of the Italian master are there. The inspirationally simple melodies; the big, longing sweeps of sound; they all fit and they all function, where Other Lives take up the slack is in a complete and daring reinvention of it all. Songs like ‘Desert‘ and ‘For 12‘ speak of journeys into the unknown and the strange passing of time, all before Jesse Tabish even opens his mouth to sing.

Other Lives aren’t as well-known as they should be, so let’s make with the introductions. Jesse Tabish fronts this outfit, singing and guitaring and pianoing. Shush, those are definitely verbs. Jenny Hsu also tinkles the ivory, and she mans (womans?) the cello with resounding finesse. Playing the bass and organ, Josh Onstott. Colby Owens drums, and Jonathon Mooney juggles piano, violin and guitar.

It’s tempting to compare their approach to ‘Dark Side of the Moon‘ or those other ambitious long players of the ‘70s, weaving a sonic through-line from start to finish, encouraging you to sit back and listen with the lights off. It feels folkier, though. Other Lives don’t tie themselves down to any one concept, or feel they have to produce the obligatory hit single. ‘Tamer Animals’ moves at its own steady, confident pace, offering us the unrivalled delight of taking our sweet time to drink in its bold, blissful tones.

In many ways, the album presents another take on Fleet Foxes’ spirit of restless wandering, so beautifully captured on ‘Helplessness Blues‘. There’s a similar timeless quality to these songs, but the mood is somehow darker, bolder. Where the Foxes charmed us with hooks and harmonies, Other Lives take the longer, less travelled road. We’re rewarded with stark, eastern-tinged strings and haunting, faintly operatic passages.

However, there is ‘Old Statues‘. ‘Old Statues’ is a fine enough song, provided you haven’t heard Sarah Blasko’s ‘All I Want‘, then it just strikes you as vaguely derivative. Blasko has already cornered the market in folksy doom waltzes, so hearing a near-sound-a-like here is a bit jarring. It’s a terrible shame to break up an otherwise unbeatable tracklist, but that’s exactly what ‘Old Statues’ does, so it gets more stick than it would if it had popped up on any other album than ‘Tamer Animals’.

That said, every other track more than makes up for ‘Old Statues’. ‘Dark Horse‘ makes for an enchanting figurehead, and goes some way toward preparing you for ‘As I Lay My Head Down‘, as striking as it is unforgettable. Gypsy flamenco clap-rhythms give form and shape to those echoey voices in the wilderness. Tabish’s lyrics are no less mystic, offering up powerful enduring images. Half-whispered phrases are left hanging mid-air to take their effect, giving us lines like “Solitary motion/in the wake of an avalanche”. Words, lines, verses, entire songs are left open to interpretation. Nothing is set in stone, which suits roaming, restless music like this just fine.

To top it all, it turns out Other Lives actually know how to write an instrumental. ‘Head East‘ bookends the album, brimming with hopefulness and a sense of unfinished business. Now, as you’ve seen, Other Lives’ music has a tendency to bring out writers in fits of uncontrollable poetic romanticism. To make up for this, you can rest assured that any attempts at rounding off this review with a corny Western-themed ‘riding off into the sunset’ metaphor will be staunchly resisted at this point. It’s not professional, and it’s not fair to such an outstanding collection of songs. Yeehaw.

(Simon Moore)