Their debut album ‘Thirst’ arrives like a thunderbolt, its ten songs hitting hard like a half hour hurricane before it exits – as quickly as it arrives – leaving the listener thinking: “What the hell just happened?”
Lead singer and sole-songwriter Carter Sharp regales of his musical inspiration: “We are based in Somerset, and having travelled a bit in Southern US, I think it’s our closest equivalent to some of those places”, which goes some way to explaining ‘Thirst’s rolling revue of good ol’ Rhythm & Blues (the real R&B), and Stooges raw power (ahem) backed by a Bristolian version of the Memphis Horns.
If that sounds like an intriguing mix, it doesn’t even touch upon Sharp’s sandpaper powered vocal delivery. Seemingly a cross between Joe Strummer and a vicious, slurred, pre-fight drunken diatribe, its Englishness smeared over the top of the bubbling, Americanised music is a most-welcome juxtaposition, and rescues Waves Of Fury from some overtly reverential treatment of US musical history.
That said, Waves Of Fury is a name that doesn’t quite fit with this band. Rather than all out vociferous anger and dissonance, there’s a controlled aggression to ‘Thirst’. It’s pretty much all major key, 3 chord wonder fuzz-rock a la the Ramones. Which means it’s got hooks, it’s catchy, almost poppy where it not for the howling vocals.
For examples, album opener ‘Death Of a Vampire‘ begins with one of the most-used chord progression of all time, found in many disparate genres and songs such as ‘Louie Louie‘, ‘Summer Nights‘ and the middle section of ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling‘. You’ve heard it before, it’s not breaking through barriers, but it’s one of the most easily accessible melodies to immerse yourself in, and the gateway to the album thereon in.
‘Jellyroll‘, after a quasi-gothic (more of which later) opening of sound effects, reverts to some Northern Soul four to the floor pounding, a two chord turnaround and powerhouse brass. Its follower ‘The Killer Inside Me‘ slows things down to a Wilson Pickett-esque smooth shuffle, but this fails to reign in Carter’s strangulated yelps, every space is filled with a Jagger-pouting “wa-oah!”. Kudos for the Fender Rhodes section too, an underused instrument these days, neatly coated in some tasteful guitar feedback.
‘These Things I Leave You‘ adopts the swinging 2/4 beat of such Motown classics as ‘Where Did Our Love Go‘, as does ‘The Everlasting Thirst‘. A diversion is found on ‘Nervous Exhaustion‘, a Buddy Holly style acoustic snippet complete with handclaps and a second section that seems as just on the verge of falling apart as the knackered, out of tune guitars they play.
A minor quibble and criticism of the album could be Carter’s emphatic declarations of the influence of Edgar Allen Poe on his gothic lyrics, which feels rather forced; as if trying to convince the world of the intelligence and depth of his own writing, before anyone has really had a chance to hear the songs. And it’s not as if it would be that hard to spot Poe’s influence anyway.
So that may be a misinterpretation, but there’s almost an element of juvenile, phony-intellectualism at play. Which is a shame, because the core strength of the album is its sound as a whole.
Look no further than album closer ‘Viodrene‘, a relatively long and definitely loud run through a set of standard chord progressions. But this is the Waves Of Fury R&B template par excellence. There’s the sound of genuine emotion here, so who cares what it’s about? And here we see the reprise of the ‘Louie Loui’e chords as the band brings us through a full cycle of ‘Thirst’.
This album is an uplifting, hard-hitting, speaker-shuddering Humvee of an album. It’s something to stick on the stereo and turn up loud, it’s something to dance to, it’s something to turn your mind off to, to tune in to and enjoy.
Nothing more, nothing less…despite what Waves Of Fury might want you to think.
Love the album and the band. Love the sonic references to old soul and RnB. You can tell through the recording all about their influences. Did you see the interview that Carter did with Music Eyz?
http://musiceyz.co.uk/2012/10/03/interview-with-carter-from-waves-of-fury/ Quote of the day, listening to the album is like eating ice cream with mushy peas – random!