Plenty of people I know would tell me that Wild Beasts haven't yet made an album that's any less than brilliant, but as great as 2011's Smother was, it sounded like the band were backing themselves into a corner. The relative opulence of their head-spinning debut Limbo, Panto had been refined on 2009's breakthrough Two Dancers, before being pared down to a fine science on their 3rd album. There was nothing else they could do with that, though, so the quartet took a break from each other after coming off their previous tour. What's come out of that is a startling change in direction - one that they have pulled off with considerable aplomb.
The first track to be let loose from Present Tense was 'Wanderlust' last month; borderline menacing in its scathing criticism of the upper class, brooding synths and Krautrock-influenced grooves signalling that Wild Beasts had freed themselves from the (arguably self-imposed) restraints of their previous work. Hayden Thorpe even swore: "Don't confuse me with someone who gives a fuck". It was almost shocking, and there are further shocks in store. Just as the title of their new record suggests, the band are focused on the here and now.
The LP isn't without callbacks to their previous material - current single 'Sweet Spot' and the spine-tingling 'Pregnant Pause' sound like versions of the band's previous incarnations, made sleeker still by their decision to strip everything down to the bare essentials - but they have nonetheless embraced the new. This isn't a transitional record - it's a rallying call, and they're leaving no punches unpulled. 'Nature Boy' sees Tom Fleming take centre stage for a withering takedown of the traditional idea of masculinity, while returns to topics of old (including the old favourite of sexuality) sound reinvigorated, with the disarming intimacy of 'Mecca' suggesting that this new, more raw, approach, suits them very well.
"All we want is to feel that feeling again" runs that track's key line, and as focused on the present as the album sounds, nostalgia does crop up a few times. "You remind me of the person I wanted to be" is the gut-punch line on closer 'Palace' - notably, an out-and-out pop song - and the double-entendre of the album title rears its head on related track 'Past Perfect': 'The perfect present? No such a thing / I'm told it's tense for me / Can't live within a memory'. The intent is clear: as far as Wild Beasts are concerned, the past is a foreign country.
