The line between utter disaster and utter brilliance is a fine one and one which the Freelance Whales walk carefully self unaware. ‘Weatehrvanes’ humbly puts vocal melodies and instrumental ones in the same time and place like they were always made to be one unit, able to combine the best of other bands such as One For The Team and Anathello into what you’ve always wanted.

Often with these more obscure indie bands, substance can be sacrificed at the cost of perceived style, but beginning with “Generator ^ First Floor” and ending with “The Great Estates” there is barely a moment which can be called contrived. “Generator ^ First Floor” should be enough to get you hooked with its free flowing, follow the melody type of feel, but if it’s not there is always the follow up track “Hannah”. The lyrics in “Hannah” have to be some of the most down to earth, just plain fun words I’ve heard in a song in a long time. Within the first 45 secs you hear “…we can argue over where and when the cymbal hits should be“, but even more than that the chorus of “If you’re partial to the night sky, If you’re vaguely attracted to rooftops…” brings in such a nostalgic innocence to the song.

Although most people will get swept up in “Hannah’s” undeniably instant appeal, I would have to argue that “Starring” is one of the records stars [pun slightly intended]. Both synth and banjo make an appearance in “Starring”, intertwining their parts beautifully. It’s songs like this along with “Ghosting” and “Generator ^ Second Floor” which makes me cherish all the instrumentation and arrangement through out the album, thankful the band knew when to say enough was enough.

So what makes this band and this record in particular so good and so fulfilling? ‘Weathervanes’ is a collection of songs which leaves the gimmicks at the door simply bringing honest music that’s inescapably catchy.

Listen to Freelance Whales

Tags: freelance whales, weathervanes

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 8:31 am and is filed under Full Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.