By Chris Anderson of Firesuite
Released 22nd January through Sargent House
Maybe it was something in the water. Out of fertile musical ground sprang forth Youth Movie Soundtrack Strategies, Jonquil, Foals and This Town Needs Guns. Oxford baby. I had (still have) music scene envy. I’m from Sheffield, I had to contend with Milburn, Little Man Tate and The Rev *shudder*.
It was a song on a rocksound cover mounted cd that first brought This Town Needs Guns (or TTNG as they have been newly christened) to my ears. From there I sought out their split EP/mini album thing with Cats And Cats And Cats. I relistened to that split before writing this and it still sounds tremendous all these years later. TTNG are all about the guitar. They hurtle melodies at you in such quick fire succession, it’s at turns both thrilling and disorientating. When they get it right, it is a marvel to behold. When they get it wrong, it acts as a barrier. An excluding mechanism. There are moments on their debut, Animals, which bristle with indulgence that act as such a barrier.
The band has been through a number of line-up changes. The one that convened to record this, their second album, exists with a new singer who now also takes up bass playing duties after their previous one departed. The keening voice of Henry Tremain on first listen reminded me of Saves The Day’s Chris Conley, and even a touch of Alex Trimble of Two Door Cinema Club (I’m so very sorry!! Please, come back!). Really though, he kinda does.
For such a major change in the core members, it is fortunate that the key elements that made TTNG so appealing remain by and large intact. If anything, whatever has been going on behind the scenes seems to have given the band a renewed vigour. 13.0.0.0.0 is a wonderful album, an album that grows with each successive listen and stakes an early claim for record of the year. It is as concerned with the minutiae of each gorgeous arpeggio as it is with the overarching sound and structure. Something which Animals, for me, never struck the right balance.
The album is seemingly pieced together with the minimum of fuss. Very clean and warm, the guitars peel away from the thrust of the song at any given moment, but then wrangle it all back in seconds later. The instrumental ‘In The Branches Of Yggdrasil’ relies upon a syncopated bass run not too dissimilar to ‘Narrow Stairs’ era Death Cab… and marks out a more sedate song writing approach.
Coupled with ‘2 birds, 1 stone And An Empty Stomach’, it gives the album a breadth of scope that sets this line-up of the band apart from any previous incarnations, and also distances them from their peers. They take cues from American Football, Owen & perhaps Minus The Bear but with 13.0.0.0.0 have set a high bar for fiddly, forward thinking guitar music.
If there’s a negative here then it perhaps overstays its welcome by a song or so, and naming a song ‘Nice Riff, Clichard’ is asking for a roll of the eyes, but these are minor points when the whole is so gratifying.
It’s consistently inviting, rewarding multiple visits. The melodies buried in ‘Cat Fantastic’ or ‘Havoc In The Forum’ reveal over time, they’re densely constructed but also wonderfully accessible. The real success with this record, and the indication of just how far TTNG have progressed are how confident they are with placing the more delicate tracks amongst the rippers.
