| These Were The Earlies | - In The Beginning
- One of us is Dead
- Wayward Song
- Slow Man's Dream
- 25 Easy Pieces
- Morning Wonder
- The Devil's Country
- Song For #3
- Lows
- Bring It Back Again
- Dead Birds
- Out on 679 Recordings
- Rating: 9/10
- Reviewer: Steven Long
|
Have no doubts These Were the Earlies is a thrilling listening experience and on this evidence is an early contender for album of the year. It must help that the Earlies are a Manc-Tex four-piece equally at home under blazing sun or drizzly rain and, on the evidence of this album, equally at home with acoustic or electronic instruments. Thus, there’s no fear of easy categorization as rock and dance clichés are left behind in a lovely musical adventure that takes in influences from all sorts of strange places without sounding wilfully perverse. Wayward Song is surround-sound Americana favoured by the likes of likes of Mercury Rev but with a sprinkle of electronica straight out of the Gardening Club circa 1992. Rave on, indeed. In contrast Morning Wonder is Kraftwerk via a line-dance in a Tucson honky-tonk, which metamorphoses into a psychedelic wig out. Just two highlights from a tremendous debut album. Quite simply, These Were the Earlies is this years Deserter’s Songs. If that sentence means anything to you, you’d better purchase this album. If not, I suspect the new Busted album will blow your mind instead. | 
