Album Review

Said The Whale – Little Mountain

• 2nd Jul 2012

Canadian indie band Said The Whale return with the follow up to 2011’s excellent Islands Disappear. Their third album, Little Mountain is named after the band’s home neighbourhood in Vancouver and while it has a Canadian theme and feel to it, there are several tracks set in the Western US too.

This is a big, sprawling album. It has fifteen tracks and somehow it feels open and expansive. With two frontmen, Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester, there is variety in the vocals, and drummer Spencer Schoening gets in on the act too with his vocal debut. Bassist Nathan Shaw and Jaycelyn Brown on keyboards round out the band, making essential contributions to the huge sound.

There is much to like within a varied collection of songs. The opening We Are 1980 is a pounding and anthemic track with lyrics that are retro yet fresh. The massive Loveless is a fine guitar pop track with a big chorus and the addition of Brown’s female vocal gives a nice call and answer middle section. Lucky is just a lot of fun, a pop song with a clap along chorus.

This band does love songs very well too and Jesse, AR is a typically uptempo offering, melodic and entertaining. The album’s closer, with drummer Spencer Schoening’s lead vocals on the lovely piano driven Season, deserves a special mention.

Oh Alexandra is close to a rock track, with some nice guitar work and a fine keyboard part. Heavy Ceiling is perhaps the heaviest track I have heard from this band yet, building from a strong bass line and developing into an uptempo stomp. The Reason sees the addition of horns to give an almost cabaret sound to a fun track.

There isn’t too much wrong with this album, although two short experimental tracks that sit in its centre, Lover/Friend and Guilty/Hypocrites, seem a bit out of place. And the five minute long Big Sky MT drags rather. Big Wave Goodbye, about leaving their home town, has emotional lyrics and a complex melody running throughout a strong track that features acoustic guitars. The outro is a bit lengthy though and the music loses focus somewhat in the closing section. Most of Said The Whale’s songs are short and to the point, but this one bucks that trend unfortunately

Said The Whale have built a great reputation in their native Canada and are gradually winning over UK audiences, it seems. There is something fresh and energetic about their sound and they always seem to be having such a great time playing their music.

Little Mountain is a well put together album that shows the versatility and musical strengths of the group to good effect. They build catchy songs on the back of their individual musical prowess and have created an album that is sure to raise their standing even higher.