The fascinating Alt-J return with their second album‘This Is All Yours’, and it is some return.
‘This Is All Yours’ picks up exactly where their debut ‘An Awesome Wave’ left off and sprints for the finish line.
That’s not to suggest it is a record that tears the walls down, or is full of fast paced, powerful stormers. It actually implies that this record takes all the wonder of their distinctive sound and let’s it grow and grow.
Like a distinctly British Yeasayer, Alt-J have an individual, warm and instantly familiar sound. Also like Yeasayer, they have a wonderful magpie nature, and appropriation is done with the brilliance of artists like Captain Beefheart, with an ability to take the form and function of a particular style of music and translate it into something truly their own. As with Beefheart’s ability to sing the blues without ever singing the blues, Alt-J have taken all the nuance and stylings of dance music, and used them all without ever recording any actual dance record.
Yet ‘This Is All Yours’ is a very different beast to their debut. It’s not as aggressive or angular, but just as inventive and impressive. This record isn’t razor sharp and doesn’t feel the need of the debut to keep turning corners to keep the listener guessing what direction it will take next. Like the stone in the stream, the edges have been worn away, and the sound is more rounded and smooth. This is a coherent piece of work. On ‘An Awesome Wave’, they displayed their individual sound and style, but ‘This Is All Yours’ displays just how far this sound can go.
The opening triumvirate of ‘Intro’, ‘Arrival In Nara’ and ‘Nara’ tell a coherent musical story. Never rushed, these tracks are given full room to breathe and slowly introduce the record. There are few bands that would be brave enough to turn over the first three tracks of their album to scene setting and mood enhancement, but equally these are not throwaway pieces, these are beautiful moments.
When the album does suddenly shift gear, it is astonishing. The impact of following these three tracks with the swift one-two of ‘Every Other Freckle’ and ‘Left Hand Free’ is sublime, taking the wind out of any expectation that may have built up. These are two brilliant tracks – as good as anything Alt-J have ever recorded.
The remainder moves and flows amongst these initial styles and rhythms with moments of beauty and menace. ‘Hunger In The Pine’, a particular standout, is a weird and disorientating sidestep that is buffered on either side by moments of utter beauty found in the slight ‘Choice Kingdom’ and the almost nursery rhyme simplicity of ‘Warm Foothills’, while ‘Gospel Of John Hurt’ is as frightening as it is wonderful. The sound of paranoia bottled.
In many respects this record is very reminiscent of John Martyn’s masterpiece ‘Solid Air’, with that wonderful level of experimentation and sheer exuberance. And like ‘Solid Air’, this exuberance and passion is coupled with a darkness and foreboding that is inescapable. Yet it is also far lusher than Martyn’s in places, and even more so than their own debut. And in this development it feels somewhat akin to Nick Drake’s transition from ‘Five Leaves Left’ to ‘Bryter Layter’, although it eschews that simple joyousness for a more bold and downtrodden tale. Despite a tendency towards darkness, the style and beauty remains, the scope, bravery and invention grows.
It should be noted this is not all thoughtful soundscapes, or wistful moments, there are some truly stunning tracks. Obviously there are moments of dark menace that hit hard, but at other points the record is playful and witty, done with the lightest of touches, and this brilliant flexing encapsulates just how wonderful the album as a whole is.
This is everything a second album should be, because it’s all the things the first told us it could be.
