ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Newcastle lads Firekites have finally followed up their 2009 debutThe Bowerywith a moodier, lusher constellation of songs that is filled with ethereal echoes and slow builds.
Each track is like a self-contained ecosystem, conversely fading and then intensifying, the whorl of melodic elements underlaid with analogue beats and pulsing drums. The album is a meandering journey, but one held together by a constant sonic thread – one with enough variation to hold attention, but in a fine balance, just enough that it never loses its way.
The atmospheric title track plays like a Foals song distilled to its basic musical elements and rearranged, drawing in listeners with a simple duet of guitar and drums that rolls into the light vocal layers of ‘Fallen’ and through to the more rhythmic ‘Fifty Secrets’. The gentle interlude of ‘Said Without A Sound’ recalls Arcade Fire’s soundtrack to Her, and leads to the mournful guitar moan on ‘Antidote’ that eventually expands to a celestial breaker of instrumentation to carry us out.
4/5.
Closing Forever Sky is out now through Spunk.
