ALBUM: WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS // THESE FOUR WALLS

EXCLUSIVE ALBUM REVIEW: We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
Words: Gareth O’Malley

They say that you’ve got your whole life to make your first album, but only eighteen months to make your second. Well, some would say that Scottish four-piece We Were Promised Jetpacks certainly took their time – they’ve been together four years, and have not released anything thus far. With ‘These Four Walls’, however, the phrase ‘good things come to those who wait’ fits the album perfectly. The wait is almost over. Released on June 15th via FatCat records, this album does not disappoint.

‘Right foot, followed by your left foot / Guide you home before your curfew / And into your bed’ – the opening line in ‘It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning’, delivered by vocalist Adam Thompson, sets the tone of the album perfectly, backed by a brilliant hook. The song goes through many changes after the first two verses, and it is an astonishing opener, up there with the likes of Shadow Committee, Flashing Red Light Means Go, In The Flowers and so on.

‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’, the band’s second single, out June 22nd, comes over all Bloc Party, with its jagged riff and Thompson’s yelped vocals. ‘Conductor’ is Bloc Party-esque, too: think ‘So Here We Are’, only a little more restrained – just when you think it is going to explode, it settles. The vocals seem to come from far away in the second half of the song (‘Like electricity / Just pouring through me’), giving them an ethereal quality.

‘A Half Built House’ is nothing special on its own, and you would be forgiven for calling it filler, but it works perfectly with what I believe to be its companion piece, the majestic ‘This Is My House, This Is My Home’. A tale of an unsettling discovery unfolds (‘Something’s happened in the attic / There’s no way I am going up there’) before a burst of guitars and drums bring the song to a close.

‘Quiet Little Voices’, the album’s lead single, was the subject of a glowing review a couple of weeks back. It’s a brilliant track, but ‘Moving Clocks Run Slow’ absolutely destroys it. The album’s catchiest and most immediate moment, it is driven by Darren Lackie’s drumming and an insistent guitar line. If this isn’t in the running for a single release, I will be shocked.

As ‘It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning’ showed, Jetpacks can do epic. Penultimate track ‘Keeping Warm’ runs to eight minutes. It builds, and builds, and keeps on building, through an instrumental section, to a glorious climax. ‘There’s nothing to eat / And there’s nowhere to sleep / In these four walls’ laments Thompson. The way the music contrasts with the lyrics adds to the song’s power, but ‘Keeping Warm’ never outstays its welcome. The song fades out, segueing into closer ‘An Almighty Thud’, an acoustic song, which is based around the story of a king who’s lost his power and influence. It brings ‘These Four Walls’ to a close in style.

This is a very good album, filled with well-crafted songs and great lyrics. We Were Promised Jetpacks took their time with their debut (unlike other bands I could mention – Red Light Company, anyone?), and it looks like their attention to detail is going to pay off for them. Excuse the pun, but they well and truly have lift-off.

7.8

mp3: We Were Promised Jetpacks – Moving Clocks Run Slow (zShare)

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