We Were Promised Jetpacks (Facebook/Twitter) thundered their way into my heart upon first listen of their debut with pounding rhythms and vocals that showed signs of a softer heart, but as they showed on last year’s The Last Place You’ll Look EP, they have not problem shifting tempos and pressure.
Where their debut was uneven, they have stepped forth and let the tension uncoil a little. Introversion is still core, but this steps away from the angst and desperation that fuelled their debut. With tracks like Medicine, WWPJ have kept the thundering crescendos but have spread their wings and opened the door to the world outside.
The sonic edge remains as brutal and bass-heavy, but it seems recording the record at Sigur Ros’ Sundlaugin Studios in the frozen plains of Iceland has allowed the band to chase the dream outside of the window rather than looking inside for experience. There is a nervousness to Act On Impulse that is of this brave new world as they reach over the horizon.
There is warmth too, as Sore Thumb sees the band finding peace and using subtlety, with the vocals softly reintroducing the wall of sound and noise from a distance. And the hope building through Pear Tree is something of brooding, thunderous beauty.
The desperation of their debut is refined on In The Pit Of The Stomach, but they are no longer defined by it. They have found new avenues outside of the walls of noise, and new pleasures beyond the self.
[BUY] We Were Promised Jetpacks – In The Pit Of The Stomach on CD | MP3 | VINYL
We Were Promised Jetpacks – Act On Impulse
We Were Promised Jetpacks – Medicine
