The Great Rise of Emotional British Rock

OPINION: We Were Promised Setbacks – The Critic Defying Consistency of Heartfelt Songwriting
words: Jamie Milton

Everyone’s prone to a few tears. Be it from a favourite movie (mine being the closing scene of Gladiator, and I can’t decide why…) or one of Sigur Ros’ thrashing crescendos of Icelandic beauty, some mediums tug at your heartstrings. But I, amongst many others have found a soft spot for what some might declare cheesy but what I would declare sentimental, love songs of sorts, sung preferably in a Scottish dialect, a Welsh one if needs be.

Hearing Bono admire something “magnificent” doesn’t quite do the job. I’m speaking of a British pool of talent, Scottish in fact, breeding some of the most gently spoken, honest songwriters for some time. Frightened Rabbit are the prime example, with lyrics varying from finding “love in a hole” to loving “a modern leper” – they tackle love with an edge of wit and darkness and it helps to put a filter on what would musically be deemed quite unoriginal and simplistic. We Were Promised Jetpacks, fellow FatCat signings, look to be the next lot to perform a similar function. Hell, even, whisper it, Snow Patrol have their moments. Even on the drastically-commercially-inclined ‘Eyes Open’, Gary Lightbody manages to put a lump in your throat.

Call me a pushover but it’s music like this that you can find comfort in, (cue the Britain’s Got Talent montages) especially at these times. For all the characterless, soulless musical acts in the charts today (The Ting Tings, in particular), bashing out open chords and speaking nonsense, this new-found collective of affecting songwriters gives the written word an ounce of hope.
The pick of the bunch however has to be the talent of Guy Garvey. Once an understated musician, the take off of his band’s latest effort, ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ has seen his contribution become far more noticed. These words in ‘Mirrorball’, for example, are particularly striking:

“We took the town to town last night.
We kissed like we invented it.
And now I know what every step is for:
to lead me to your door.”

The U.S. has its fair share of tearjerkers too. Bon Iver is the first to put on after a break-up. But it almost feels like up in the coldest part of the Britain, some of us are finding warmth in the idea of love or even unrequited love. Back to Frightened Rabbit, they casually mix themes of taking pills and other trivial acts into the palette with the overall picture of love and loss. This adds a sense of realism, making lyrics more personal but also more identifiable. It’s a trend that looks set to continue, maybe on a wider scale. But if more youngsters can get influenced by Frightened Rabbit than Basshunter, the future looks rosy. It might just turn out that this form of songwriting, this genre of music, is the most important one around today.

mp3: Frightened Rabbit – My Backwards Walk [alt]
mp3: The Chairs – Flume (Bon Iver Cover) [alt]

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