The album cover of Wall of Arms (pictured here), the sophomore effort from English indie rock band The Maccabees, invokes certain questions. Will we hear some glammed-up version of the band or the real thing? If we dig below these synthesized versions of themselves, will we get to know them a little bit better? Can we connect with the songs on a deeper level, or will we be left in a superficial holding pattern? (The answers are the latter, yes, and the former.)

The dark highlight of this album is ‘No Kind Words.’ It’s beautiful, haunting, sad yet hopeful. And it’s now. The guitar mimics doom. The drums punctuate fear. The lyrics reach your cowering heart. Orlando Week’s voice is rich and deep, so deep that I keep following it, chasing it, wanting to know its origin, yet scared of what I might find along the way. The parting lyrics (If you’ve got no kind words to say / you should say nothing more at all) are not revolutionary in meaning, yet it’s as if I’m hearing them for the first time. Maybe it’s the way the tempo shifts, maybe it’s the way that the words are repeated over and over in a pillow of steady drums and increasingly intense guitar, or maybe it’s just that I am captivated by Week’s voice, but I hear the words in a brand new light. Maybe you will too.

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The Maccabees - No Kind Words (Downloaded 172 times)

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» Meaningless labels: Brit-Pop • Catchy • Dark

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