Summer is coming. The UK’s long, endless winter – almost Game Of Thrones-like in its grinding tenacity – is over.
Along with the feel-good party songs that are mandatory for the long days and short nights, some new hazy psychedelia is required. Look no further then; Future War Bride have you covered.
It has to be said that Denmark isn’t renowned for either its hazy summers nor its psychedelia, but the four-piece are ready to change all that. Moody opener Element sets the scene well, its eerie ambience provoking mental images of over-dubbed 80s children’s TV shows. Majahua is all sitars and Tomorrow Never Knows echoingly distant vocals before it kicks in a stomping metallic beat. The mellotron features heavily across the album, and no more so than here.
Legs In Mini Skirts, meanwhile, sounds like a lost 60s classic and embraces it; ‘you used to wear flowers in your hair, dance with your hands up in the air’, coos an unknown female vocalist, and the song plays out to a brilliantly bonkers saxophone solo.
The drums have an industrial weight which propels the album forward and gives it a sense of urgency not usually found in psych-rock; as on Gloves Off which, as the title suggests, is a direct challenge to the malaise that the ‘face-down’ generation busies itself with. In Step eases the pace somewhat, frontman Mikkel Bostrom pleading the listener to ‘step with the times’ against a mournful backdrop before Apple Tree, which can only be described as Temples covering America’s Horse With No Name, asserts itself as an instant ear-worm. Glorious, emotion-drenched backing vocals and a winding string section contribute to an album highlight.
Mid-60s McCartney bass isn’t the only thing that makes Thin Air bring to mind those inescapable Beatles; Bostrom’s lyrics once again cover transcendental thought processes, his voice double-tracked to add to the effect. On Uniform, the band all take turns to excel, first drums followed once again by a disproportionately chunky bass-line. Mid-song, guitars get their moment in the spotlight before returning to the synchronicity of the band. It’s perhaps slightly too long, as the last minute or so meanders without offering anything new, but it’s a good ride nonetheless.
Following track Mercury doesn’t really get the temperature soaring, bearing a close similarity to In Step with its glacial pace and nondescript vocal chants. But it’s the calm before the final storm; Once I Was A Bird is a synth-led, pulsating stroll through one of those cavernous super-clubs but accompanied by good music, before the album concludes with Cabernet & Orange Tea, which is surely an outtake from Syd Barrett’s opus The Madcap Laughs.
Future War Bride look destined to become a well-kept secret, which is a shame as if they were fresh-faced young bucks they would be being promoted as the next Temples, or even the next Tame Impala. Here’s hoping that we have evolved somewhat from ageism, as Majahua deserves to be listened to far and wide.
Wherever they go will be a compelling trip.