The celestial and majestic pop lilt of Guillemots’ third album, Walk The River, sees the bold art-pop/alternative rock band create a record that is as intimate as it is ambitious. While the London-based quartet have always possessed an endearing eccentricity, they’ve embraced a more introspective and reflective poignancy here. Retreating to the Wales to record amidst the beautiful Snowdonia Mountains would give the quartet the isolation, freedom and rejuvenation that inspired Walk The River.
The title track is an entrancing, atmospheric beauty – atop waves of melodious textures, the ethereal vocal cry of frontman Fyfe Dangerfield has never been more affecting: and more than anything, Guillemots’ third album showcases the quartet’s eclecticism – for every experimental track, there’s an unadulterated pop gem. Vermillion shifts from mystic folk into prog-rock/psychedelic flourishes laden with eerie harmonies. I Don’t Feel Amazing Now, on the other hand, is a dreamy, heartfelt pop ballad that’s only bettered by the divinely soulful Tigers.
Guillemots’ grittier propensity is represented by Ice Room‘s funk-laden grooves and fuzzed-out rocker The Basket, but the album is defined by its majestic psychedelia, harmonic grace and introverted intensity, as highlighted by the crafty poise of Sometimes I Remember Wrong, Dancing In The Devil’s Shoes and eight-and-a-half minute closer, Yesterday Is Dead. In the latter, Dangerfield’s mesmerising proclamation of, “If only we believed in someone” cements the album’s mystically haunting imprint.
Best Track: Dancing In The Devil’s Shoes , Tigers.
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night THE BESNARD LAKES, Through The Windowpane GUILLEMOTS.
In A Word: Mystical.
