We all have bands we loved who split. This Et Al were one of mine, and the unexpected nature of the announcement of their break-up was made all the more shocking by the fact that they had released their best material to date – the masterful Figure Eight EP – barely a month previously. All the band members are now involved in now projects, as had been promised the announcement of the split in June 2008, but the one that has attracted the most attention involves ex-frontman Wu.
Stalking Horse have been steadily drip-feeding fans material (the first two songs from what would become ‘Specters’ have been online since December of 2010, and there were two singles last year), but now the album is set to see the light of day, in a physical form at least, at the end of May. It’s been available on Bandcamp for more than a month, but more on that later. What you probably want to know is, is it good? Well, I wouldn’t have expected anything else from a man involved in one of my favourite debut albums ever, ‘Baby Machine’, but it’s even better than I had hoped.
It’s a completely different beast to its ‘predecessor’ in some ways, and not so much in others. For one thing, Wu’s knack for writing brilliant melodies is still there, only this time he’s wrapping them around dark, brooding pop songs, not fragmented, unashamedly ambitious math-rock. There’s an inescapable sense of Stalking Horse being a new beginning for him; he wonders, ‘what do I need to start again?‘ on shuffling opener ‘Key Strokes’, a song which immediately draws attention to his voice, which has, in the past, drawn comparisons to Thom Yorke, and even Hayden Thorpe from Wild Beasts, comparisons which are particularly valid on the shimmering album highlight ’99 Stairs’.
The latter’s keening falsetto can be off-putting to some, however, and Wu doesn’t go for even slightly theatrical delivery unless it is absolutely necessary, like on ‘Mistress’, a stunningly beautiful ballad which is augmented by ringing tremolo guitars, a shifting tempo and a stop-start rhythm. It comes across as the most intense song on an album full of them, though when Wu wants to dial it down a little, he does it very well indeed. After ‘Mistress’, ‘Specters’ is in need of a small breather, but it settles into a more restrained section quite nicely, with the mid-tempo ‘Doctor A Heart’ setting the stage for one of Wu’s most impressive vocal performances to date.
From there, deceptively straightforward lead single ‘Heathen Head, Howling Heart’ and the expansive ‘Little Rituals’ set up the album’s closing salvo. I briefly wondered what purpose ‘Waterhole’ served as the penultimate track on the album; it’s such a powerful song that I thought, at the time, it would have been better off towards the front half of the album, but its new context is effective, picking things back up with its infectious vocal hook and impressive grasp of dynamics, and paving the way for the suitably dark ‘Lament’. ‘Soon you’ll forget my face when the ground has swallowed us whole to pull us further from home, further from love,’ Wu sings, before the song suddenly lifts off, its guitar-driven coda fading out and closing the album in stunning fashion. It may not be the most comfortable of listens, but Wu’s never been one for making ‘comfortable’ music, and ‘Specters’ is suitably challenging but extremely impressive stuff. Four years after the demise of This Et Al, he’s still producing music to high standards.
Specters is self-released on May 28th, but is streaming in full at the Stalking Horse Bandcamp.
Posted by Gareth O’Malley
