![]() I’ve heard it takes some time to get it right.” Indeed.Īs if a friend is listening and offering comforting advice, the next track “Sights”, is the musical equivalent of a morale booster, proving support and telling the recently single or jobless individual to find that inner strength, forge ahead, and keep the faith. The track beautifully ruminates on a theme of finding oneself amidst uncertainty: “Don’t you know that it’s only fear? I wouldn’t worry, you have all your life. These men and women finish their university careers and find that there are absolutely no jobs to be had in their fields. It’s as much a documentation of romance gone sour, as a possible commentary on the alarming plight of jobless young adults in a merciless economy. An absolute highlight of a record adorned with many, this is the one song I have returned to countless times. I live and breathe under the moon, and when you cross the bridge I’ll come and find you.” “Shyer” continues the developing storyline with plucked guitar strings and a vulnerable plea to her lover to give up the pain they feel, so the relationship can thrive.īy the time the fourth track “Wasting My Young Years” arrives, the doe-eyed altruism has all but seemingly dissipated. ![]() This innocuous, obsessive young love spills into the second track “Stay Awake”, where the pace picks up a bit at the subtle pulse of a drum beat and a high hat cymbal. This is the sound of emotions simmering in a pot on the stove until they boil over the edge. ![]() Hey now, I can feel my instincts here for you,” she sings, dropping words such as “frightening” and “lightning” to describe a new love. “Hey now, letters burning by my bed for you. Instrumentation is stripped back to a bare minimum, turning all the focus over to the trio’s front woman and her delivery. If You Wait’s first single “Hey Now” arrived via YouTube in December of 2012, providing the blueprint for the rest of the album. Others immediately prevent you from continuing any task at hand, turning your focus once again to that voice and Reid’s honest lyrics. Leisurely drawing you in, some songs will pass by and go unnoticed upon first listen, but will open up like a flower that only blooms at night, upon a second. The term “slow burner” could have easily been created for an album such as this. The comparisons to British indie-pop band the xx or early Everything But the Girl aren’t terribly far off, but London Grammar have carved out a singular vision for themselves. Nothing on If You Wait approaches the swaying dance floor groove of “Help Me Lose My Mind”, but it matters little when the songs are this sumptuous. Not until they were featured as the closing track on the critically acclaimed debut album Settle, by Disclosure, were they thrust into the mainstream limelight. Sheltered from the pressures of a massive record company breathing down their necks, the group slowly released one radiant gem after another, giving them the opportunity to hone their craft until they were ready to release an entire album. ![]() After playing a handful of shows to small crowds in local pubs the trio were signed by Ministry of Sound, an independent label known more for it’s electro-rave compilations than anything on this mood-laden offering. Vocalist Hannah Reid met guitarist Dan Rothman in the hallways of the University of Nottingham in 2009, later incorporating the percussion and pianistic skills of Dot Major. Even if the music surrounding her wasn’t as riveting as what’s been recorded on their debut album If You Wait, that voice would still leave you spellbound. She smolders in her smoky mid-range and roars bright and clear in the upper end, recalling the brooding earthiness of a Marina Diamandis or Natasha Khan and the breathtaking folk soprano of a young Joni Mitchell. Hannah Reid of the English art-pop rock trio London Grammar possesses such a staggering instrument. It’s the kind of voice that instantly evokes a mood, a particular emotion or even an entire season within its timbre. Sometimes you encounter a voice that stops you dead your in your tracks. UK poet Brian Patten “On a Horse Called Autumn” from Collected Love Poems “On a horse called Autumn among certain decaying things she rides inside me, and no matter where I move this woman’s song goes on ahead of me.”
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