Album Review

We Are Augustines – Chapel Song

• 27th Feb 2012

American rockers We Are Augustines release the excellent new single Chapel Song just days after the band performed their US network TV debut as guests on David Letterman’s Late Show last Friday.
It’s an exciting time for the highly rated three piece band from Brooklyn with debut album ‘Rise Ye Sunken Ships’ scheduled for its UK release on March 5th, also through Oxcart Records.

Chapel Song has a strong beat, opening with Rob Allen’s drums and a meaty bass line from Eric Sanderson before the vocals of guitarist Billy McCarthy come in. He is watching the woman he loves walking through the chapel to marry another man, and the emotion behind the song is well portrayed. An oddly simplistic keyboard riff kicks in and the track builds nicely towards the end.

There is a repetitive quality to the lyrics that tends to emphasise rather than take away from the singer’s pain, and the comparison of the hurt caused by the scene and the bright blue sky of a perfect day works well. It’s a fairly simple song but well performed and passionate.

The b-side, Ohio, is also worth a listen. A slower, acoustic track, this one also has a lost love theme. The lyrics see McCarthy lamenting the loss of a girl who is heading back to her home state. It’s a haunting song with slower vocals but the same intensity as Chapel Song.

On the basis of this brief introduction to the world of We Are Augustines, the album should be well worth hearing.