Faker
Be The Twilight
12 Track, LP (2007, EMI)
Related: Faker.
Faker’s records don’t immediately strike you as being amongst those likely to reveal their charms slowly after repeated listens. There’s nothing layered or subtle about them, no obtuse sonic experimentation to get your head around. But their last album, Addicted Romantic, proved surprisingly durable, still bursting with pent-up energy and dynamite hooks after a flogging on radio and appearances at every festival going, where frontman Nathan Hudson’s wild-eyed, amp-climbing restlessness made them a reliable drawcard amongst more exotic competition.
Opening track ‘This Heart Attack’ sees Hudson announce he’s leaving on a head-clearing holiday and “coming back with answers”. But Be The Twilight proves no pastoral lullaby, instead mining the same familiar vein of urbane pop-rock with huge shoutalong choruses and snappy, stop-start dynamics. You can here traces of The Cure, but think the (relatively) cheery radio hits of Galore rather than the brooding atmospherics of say Bloodflowers, while the standout ‘Lazy Bones’ fizzes with the contagious enthusiasm of a young and hungry Supergrass. Nothing here jumps out of the speakers quite like ‘Hurricane’, but like the album that was lifted from, Twilight looks to have enough hooks and energy to last all summer long.
by Daniel Herborn
