Album: There Will Be Fireworks – S/T

ALBUM: There Will Be Fireworks – S/T

Words: Gareth O’Malley

There Will Be Fireworks is one of the best band names I have seen in a while. It’s not so much a name as a statement of intent, and I sometimes wonder if the Glaswegian four-piece settled on their name for that very reason. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Scottish music is thriving, and we have seen bands produce great album after great album so far this year. However, I have been waiting to hear a Scottish 2009 album that goes beyond ‘great’, and moves into ‘exceptional’ territory. I had a feeling that it would only be a matter of time, and I can safely say that, after spending a few weeks with this album, this is it. There are a few more on the way too, no doubt. There Will Be Fireworks’ self-titled debut is, if you’ll excuse the pun, a cracker. The band – Adam Ketterer (drums, glockenspiel), David Madden (bass), Gilbran Farrah (guitar, violin, piano) and Nicholas McManus (guitars, vocals, organ) – have created something that they should be immensely proud of. The album is more post-rock than anything else – think Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky-esque dynamics, wrapped around explosive, not to mention explosively passionate, songs.

Opener ‘Colombian Fireworks’ is quite an interesting way to get things started. The band could have gone for the jugular first thing by putting the soaring ‘Off With Their Heads’ as track one, but they made a brave move and picked this track instead. It features a spoken-word piece by Kevin MacNeil, whose lilting tones are accompanied by atmospheric guitars, which gradually overtake the author’s voice as the song bursts into life, building to a stunning climax. It immediately becomes clear that this is not a band defined by style or form, trapped by the frozen chains of genre, but rather one that forced the genre into new shapes.

Short acoustic piece ‘So The Story Goes’ reveals some other things, namely that the record is quite diverse, and that the production is quite unusual, in that the vocals never seem to take centre stage. The drums, too, have an unusual sound to them. It’s not that it is a poorly produced album, but if the band are picked up by a label (this is a self-released album, as they are, criminally, unsigned), it would definitely benefit from some polish.

On ‘Midfield Maestro’, focus shifts to David Madden’s bass work. Nicholas McManus delivers a passionate lyric, with lines such as ‘Let’s set these tapes on fire, as your heart breaks in my car’. Some of the crescendos on the album are brilliant, and this track in particular should be noted for the way things are concluded.

‘Guising’, rather fittingly, has echoes of ‘Warnings/Promises’-era Idlewild, another acoustic song that shows that the band know how to write a good melody. It fades into a squall of feedback, which becomes the heaviest moment on the album, the aforementioned ‘Off With Their Heads’. It’s one of the most immediate songs on the album, but I find that TWBF are at their best when they choose not to rock out.

Choice track ‘Foreign Thoughts’ boasts one of the best hooks I have heard all year: an insistent, effects-laden guitar line. The song builds into another brilliant climax. The lyrics here are some of the best the record has to offer, with more than a hint of melancholy to them – “She says she barely sleeps, and if she does, it’s fitfully… In a foreign bed, head next to foreign head, the sad song in her mind repeats”. An incredible song, and the poppiest moment on the record.

There Will Be Fireworks, however, is defined by two sprawling epics: ‘A Kind of Furnace’ and ‘Joined Up Writing’. The former is carried by a hauntingly beautiful piano part and ghostly backing vocals. It reminds of me of Sigur Rós at their finest, slowly unfolding over the course of its seven minutes, and never once feeling like it has outstayed its welcome. Violin and piano introduce the latter, and the song kicks into life with the arrival of the drums around a minute and a half in. You get the sense, though, that it is building to something much bigger. A time-signature change near the four minute mark heralds beautiful crooned vocals, and then, it happens. The guitars enter fully, and over a reprise of those vocals, the song concludes. As instruments drop out, an acoustic guitar turns up, and we are treated to a piece that is, lyrically and melodically, a throwback to ‘Foreign Thoughts’. They couldn’t have ended the album any more effectively if they’d tried to.

Far and away the best thing about There Will Be Fireworks, though, is the fact that it is so much more than the sum of its parts. The pacing and structure of the album is impeccable, and there is so much to discover, little things that leap out at you on repeated listens. An astonishing record, something that is made all the better for the fact that the band’s sound, despite having been noticeably influenced by certain groups, manages to come off as something entirely their own. A triumph from start to finish.