The debut full-length album from World’s End Press has been a long time coming. The slick, brash appeal of early singles like Faithful and Only The Brave showed much promise and less ‘baggy’ cuts have followed in recent years, pointing to new directions and adding different layers to their infectious indie-disco sound.
With a gradual build that never quite achieves lift-off, To Send Our Love is more successful as an anticipatory opening track than a single. The self-titled recording then leads into a cluster of instantly lovable bangers: That Was A Loving House is like the content of The Smiths’ Back To The Old House thrust into an acid-buzzing nightclub; the uplifting My Salvation is music as religion; and the early morning dance-floor becomes a pit of desperation for a seedy trash-bag on the electro-throb of Drag Me Home.
Things get looser in the middle of the album, anchored by new single Reformation Age and its more downbeat counterpart Deadbeat Sweetheart. To make the most of their widescreen format, the band drop in a couple of beat-less numbers either side of these singles; this is an album for listening to at home after all, not a DJ set. The simplicity of the voice and piano based Vanguard is the most unexpected shift in pace, while the drifting ambience of Chewing Gum Prayer plays like interim piece from an M83 album.
The group keep extending themselves for the album’s third and final act, but also bring the beats back to front and centre. Your Time Will Come is split into two parts; a sparse electronica intro that slowly builds, then segues into a jubilant italo-house anthem. A similar trick is used on the closing two tracks, also essentially one track, though this time the first part (Natural Curiosity) is the tight pop song, while the latter part (Out) leisurely loops the beat out to the ten-minute mark to hypnotic effect.
The protracted process of this recording’s creation hasn’t dulled the glow of the band’s enthusiastic sound, nor has it produced an over-thought, over-polished the result. World’s End Press makes good on the promise of those early dance-floor gems and manages to offer some gratifying elements of surprise along the way.
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
Best Tracks: Your Time Will Come (Part Two)
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: In Ghost Colours CUT COPY, This Is Big Audio Dynamite BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE, Sound Of Silver LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
In A Word: Impressive
