The Chakras didn’t come out of nowhere, but even in this age of global inter-connectivity, to an Australian Ireland can still seem like a mystical isolated nation state at the edge of the world, or ‘the land of U2’ to the less-intellectually enriched.
Thus, The Chakras find haven in this realm, mystical without being beside the point, atmospheric without being self-indulgent, and indebted to those that have come before them without actually ripping anyone off.
To start proceedings off, debut album ‘Build Me a Swan’s opener, ‘Movement’, is a sweeping and all-engrossing number, taking off like a flock of birds into cosmic orbit and soaring existentially over a dynamic musical landscape. It sounds like everything and nothing that’s come before; a triumphant and welcome opener to set the pace for the now-headily anticipated collection of songs that follow.
First single and title track ‘Build Me a Swan’ doesn’t stray far from the realm defined by its predecessor, but it does attempt to showcase an array of different sounds within its panoramic wall-of-sound like backdrop. The keys and vocals on this track are the kind that wouldn’t sound out of place on Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows‘ or Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon‘.
Surprisingly, there are no significant quality dips in the songs that succeed the high-watermark etched by the opening tracks. This is best demonstrated by the quasi U2-like ‘Beautiful Sorrow’, with its ‘With or Without You’ like bass rhythm and its haunting fade-out vocal harmonies, and the triumphant, yearning – Jarvis Cocker inspired – ‘Slowdive’.
More Radiohead influences can be found in the spatial void of ‘Drifting (Take a Walk Outside)’, this time circa ‘Kid A‘, on ‘How to Disappear Completely’ in particular, and the rhythmic ‘Dark Horizon’ could nestle quite cosily into Placebo’s back catalogue.
This is where ‘Build Me a Swan’ has its greatest hurdle – striving for originality. Although when they’re at their best The Chakras can combine their influences and soaring psychedelic melodies into something that’s reasonably their own, there are too many instances on the album where you become convinced that you’ve heard the sound scapes and arrangements elsewhere, in the hands of artists that implement and exercise them with more dynamics, expertise and sophistication.
‘Build Me a Swan’s cover art hints at avant-garde roots and self-induced controversy, but the concept of naked women wielding fully-fleshed white swans from the ocean’s girth is in reality just random, meandering and a little unfocused – something that tends to be a recurring theme throughout the group’s debut LP.
The second half of the album is most representative of this, and where the triumphant ‘Movement’ bristles and expands on its Doves-esque template, ‘Make It Tonight’ and ‘Nothing Is Forgotten’ seem to be without focus or direction, hinting at the quasi-surrealism suggested by the album’s cover art, but never quite seizing or quashing this pretentious gratification to justify their existence.
In conclusion, ‘Build Me a Swan’ is best enjoyed in moderation, but if The Chakras can steer clear of using their influences so profoundly and excessively on future compositions, the path ahead looks bright indeed.
(Raphael Hall)
