I’ve just read the news: The Maccabees are apparently set to hit the lofty heights of #1 in the UK album charts this coming Sunday with their new album. Excuse me a moment while I punch the air in delight. This review was going to highlight the reasons why Given to the Wild deserved to be the band’s breakthrough album, anyway, but having my suspicions confirmed is something rather thrilling. Unless you’re the kind who feels that the bands they love are ‘precious’, there’s always that feeling of joy when you see them become noticed, and even though the thought of them becoming ‘big’ (as it were) more often than not scares certain sections of their fanbase, success of any sort should not be begrudged.

Consider The Maccabees’s situation: in five years, they have made the jump from being (somewhat unfairly) lumped in with the UK landfill-indie ‘scene’, to becoming a force to be seriously reckoned with. The local boys are going nationwide, to borrow from All In Your Rows, from 2007’s Colour It In. However, the new record is so expansive and textured that it will test fans’ abilities to grow, just as the band have done. Being given a Markus Dravs-assisted shot in the arm with Wall of Arms three years ago worked wonders for the band. It was a huge step forward, and the band have changed just as much again for their third outing… meaning that Given to the Wild sounds nothing like how they used to be.

The album’s lyrical themes deal with change, too, Orlando Weeks’ style having matured even further in the wake of the break-up that influenced his band’s second album. He reminds us that ‘nothing stays forever’ on album centrepiece Forever I’ve Known, reflecting on the transient nature of existence on sparky lead single Pelican (in what is an amazingly effective contrast), marrying lyrics like, ‘Before you know it, we’re pushing up the daisies’ to an insistent guitar line and sky-scraping hooks. Speaking of the latter, the keyboard line from Went Away has the capability to get stuck in a listener’s head for days.

Its appearance is one euphoric moment among many; Given to the Wild is absolutely chock-full of them, meaning this is quite comfortably the most optimistic and uplifting Maccabees record so far, despite the weightiness of its themes. However, it is not without its darker moments. Unknow is another album highlight, yet it inhabits murkier territory with its brooding bassline and jerky guitar blasts, a perfect counterpoint to Pelican, with which it has noticeable similarities in composition, even if the songs’ moods couldn’t be more different.

It has been said of the album (by the band themselves) that it possesses a sort of cinematic quality, and this is clearly audible in its structure; it has a sort of overture in the title track, before leading into Child, a song which introduces the main themes of the album: change, growth and maturity. Things draw to a close with Grew Up at Midnight, the stunning final track which ties things up nicely, giving the record a nice sense of closure. It ebbs and flows wonderfully, ensuring that not one of its 13 songs is passed over. Its 53-minute running time may seem questionable at first, but as the album grows on you – and it is definitely a grower, nowhere as immediate as their previous work – and its true depths are revealed, you sense that it is the perfect length. Far away from where they started, The Maccabees’s wild ride of a third album looks set to take them places – places they perhaps never dreamed of seeing.

Given to the Wild is out now via Fiction/Polydor
[BUY] The Maccabees – Given to the Wild @ Amazon | iTunes | Norman Recs

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The Maccabees – Pelican