We Have Band : 'WHB'
Released: Out Now!!!
Label: Naive
I had never quite been able to make up my mind about We Have Band. They had releases on some of my favourite labels, played some fantastic gigs and seemed to have praise heaped on them from all angles. All through this, though, I just wasn’t sure about the actual music. There were moments, of course, but the songs as whole just didn’t quite do it for me.
Gone are any such notions of doubt after sitting through their debut on Naïve music. We Have Band are here to stay. The opening two tracks suggest that this is the album that Bloc Party have been trying to craft since their debut, “Silent Alarm”. Warm guitar lines sweep gently across gentle bass, while vocals blend wonderfully with the music fading in and out of th foreground as and when deemed necessary.
Then the electronics come into play with massive effect in the pulsating lines of “Divisive”, melding brilliant synthesised basslines with live bass grooves to enormous effect. While “Love, What You Doing?” again goes straight for the jugular but this time through shimmering melodies swirling around that irresistible We Have Band bass and an absolutely fantastic vocal chorus hook. “Oh!” is a straight up dancefloor beast that is sure to create havoc at shows, with a combination of driving bass and simple melodies.
“How To Make Friends” rolls back into more indie territory and, as such, perhaps doesn’t stand out as much as previous tracks. What it does, though, is create a platform on which one can rest before climbing onto to the next burst of electro based goodness, and is a rather lovely piece in its own right. “Honeytrap" begins with the blips and bleeps again without going to over the top, creating a casual bridge between their organic and electronic material.
“Hear it In The Cans” gets the pace back up and running. A big, well rounded piece, it skates between big hooky guitars, gentle electronic blips and layered vocals. While the opening riff from “Centrefolds & Empty Screens” is almost worthy of Black Sabbath, such is its thickness and consistency. Then we lapse into a bizarre blend of looped melodies and deep, grungey guitars, creating an interesting soup of electronics and organic music that probably goes rather well with a couple of slices of a crusty loaf of live shows.
“You Came Out” is all twiddly funky guitar riff, it’s almost as if they set their guitars to cowbell mode in fact. Chuck in that afore mentioned groovy bass and some catchy whistling (yep, someone else nails a good whistle without it being annoying. Though I can’t guarantee that will be the case forever…). Penultimate track “WHB” has an opening kick drum beat which never fails to remind me of LOTP’s “Bathroom Gurgle”, though thankfully everything else goes in an entirely different direction (why bother trying to do a “Bathroom Gurgle”? You’ll never beat it) There is also definitely a darker, 80’s punk edge to the track, which brings the album to a head…
Finally “Hero Knows” takes us to the close as the best and most beautiful track on the record. The layering of vocal refrain “When you know what we know, when you’ve been where we’ve been…” never fails to astound me. By another it would most likely smack of self indulgence and a misplaced sense of importance and generally be more irritating than a mild case of herpes. Here, however, it is structured so fantastically and done with a sense of wistful melancholy which makes you want to take them and their advice very seriously indeed, and one would be wise to do so.
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