Envelopes – Here Comes The Wind

• 26th Feb 2008

Here Comes The Wind has had a long gestation, partly due to Envelopes’ incessant tinkering. A younger sibling to 2006’s Demon, it’s another child of joyful pop parents, spawning several offspring of its own in the last couple of years. Its take on the new wave bounce of Freejazz is just as busy and buzzy with Audrey’s glorious glossolalia as the original release.

Tweaked versions of the three other singles to date are flavoured by the band’s acknowledged influences, with more than a nod to Talking Heads and the B-52’s – Henrik’s vocals on Smoke In The Desert, Eating The Sand, Hide In The Grass and Life On The Beach head towards David Byrne at best and Fred Schneider at worst. The male/female dynamic works better on opening track Party, with the echoing thump and artless lyrics bringing The Pixies to mind. As does the sublime Heaven, which touches on Sigur Rós or Mew at their most epic (not wanting to stretch the Scandinavian comparisons too far…). Seawise is equally uplifting and – in keeping with the nautical theme – Boat is solo Audrey again, her naïve vocals as charming as any yé-yé cutie.

The closest things get to being twee is during I’m In Love And I Don’t Care Who Knows It, a romp with Beach Boys harmonies and, you imagine, a Ringo head-waggle. I’d Like 2 C U avoids the issue by being, in parts, the kind of sweet inanity that recalls The Ramones at their most good-natured.

The album shines with originality and ripples of experimentation, though fares less well where these are more heavy handed: Put On Hold was admittedly meant for an answerphone tune, but ends up a Radiophonic Workshop mish-mash. And while the stylophone of What’s The Deal? seems to fit with the band’s character, the pitch-corrected vocals are a bit too Cher to feel comfortable. But above all, Here Comes The Wind is intensely likeable and listenable. Aside from time and technicalities, Envelopes have avoided the difficult second album and come up with a first class delivery.