Album Review

Guillemots – Walk The River

• 29th Apr 2011

After the surprise success of Fyfe Dangerfield’s solo offering ‘Fly Yellow Moon’ (particularly his cover of Billy Joel’s ‘She’s Always A Woman’) it would have been tempting for Guillemots to cash in on the new found fame of their front man and make a nice, safe record aimed at the sort of people who are influenced by nice, safe John Lewis ads. I say new found fame but of course this isn’t strictly true as anyone with half an eye on the indie scene will have been aware of Mr. Dangerfield and Co since their stunning Mercury nominated debut ‘Through The Windowpane’. What I mean by new found fame is, of course: your mum now knows who he is.
Walk The River is not a safe record. For one thing there are two tracks clocking in at over 8 ½ minutes! It begins with the title track, sneaking its way out our speakers with an intro built around drums and Dangerfield’s delicate vocal. Then there’s the hook: “Walk the river like a hunted animal” sings Dangerfield and there it is, he’s got us. There’s something fantastically unquantifiable about his fragile, yet powerful delivery that gives an otherwise unremarkable line a new significance.
As hooky and accomplished as tracks like ‘Walk The River’ and lead single ‘The Basket’ are, they aren’t what make the album interesting. It’s the more experimental edge to Guillemots sound on tracks like ‘Sometimes I Remember Wrong’ and the positively epic ‘Yesterday Is Dead’ that bear repeated listens.
The best moments here are the odd choices, the unexpected gear changes. The chaotic element that made ‘Through The Windowpane’ great was what was sadly missing from the 2008 follow up ‘Red’. Walk The River has this quality in abundance and is certainly a return to form for Guillemots.