R E V I E W – M U S I C A L B U M
Faiyaz Ahmed
I spent most of my 2018 listening to Bloom and twelve four, so I had high expectations going into their most recent album from the start off. The first thing that caught my eye was the list of features in their songs. While most albums tend to have 4-6 elements in their record, this album had a part for every song on the form. That’s ten feature artists for ten songs.
I was hesitant at first about the long list of artists. It made me wonder if this was going to be another one of those albums that a well-established band puts out that made no sense and was just all over the place. However, I was proven wrong, right from the intro track.
The band’s true essence, their indie-folk sound mixed with soft rock guitar riffs and drum work, is still very prominent in the songs from the very get-go. The album starts with a solid track that gives you a good idea of what direction the band will take, and before you know it, you’re humming along to the songs.
I had two concerns from the start, the first one being, how much of Sam Bentley I am going to hear as the band’s front-man and given how his unique vocals are what made The Paper Kites what they are today. And secondly, will the artists be able to fit into the band’s signature sound? Although, at first, I wished there was more of Sam in some tracks, I must say the band did a great job at picking and placing their features.
Also, did I mention that all the artists are women? Because they are, and that too from a variety of different nations. The list includes Julia Stone, Ainslie Wills, Gena Rose Bruce from Australia; Nadia Reid, a singer-songwriter from New Zealand; Portuguese singer Maro and many more.
Each artist helped elevate their respective songs, and it was transparent as to how much creativity and thought went into picking them. Instead of feeling out of place, the songs sounded as if these were explicitly written, keeping them in mind.
The soothing vocals accompanied by the transcendental soft rock guitar riffs, the indie-folk acoustic guitar, makes you want to hold someone special in your arms and sit beside a window on a rainy afternoon.
“Walk Above the City”, the intro song, triggers a particular emotion from the very first time you listen to it. The same can be said about almost every song on the record. Each song triggers a deep feeling of love, heartbreak, passion, affection, and all that jazz.
The standout tracks from the record, in my opinion, would be “Climb on your tears”, “Steal My heart Away”, “Walk Above the City”, and “Take Me Home”.
However, every song from that album has the potential to make you feel emotions you never even knew you had inside you and yearn for love.
This is the fifth studio album by the indie band, The Paper Kites, and somehow they managed to give us something refreshing and beautifully crafted yet again. This album continues to grow on me as time passes, and I can imagine this slowly creeping into everyone’s playlists dedicated to their special someone.
Singer Sam Bentley says of The Paper Kites’ music:
If you were to walk along a busy street, and something caught your eye – something small that had no business being there – but you picked it up and put it in your pocket, you couldn’t say why – but for some reason, you kept it with you – to me, that’s our music.
Faiyaz is morbidly seeking attention, help him out at [email protected]