The First Days Of Autumn

When I've heard for the first time a Noah and the Whale song, my first thought was "mountain trip". Yeah, their songs gave me the same feelings as the ones you sing when you go with your friends on a mountain trip. A mix of vintage and new, somehow their songs didn't seem belong to a certain period of time. They seemed okay, musically as well as lyrically, and I was wondering how their next album will sound. Now that my curiosity has been satisfied, I can tell you a few things about the second Noah and the Whale album, The First Days of Spring.

The title could suggest that this is about a different approach towards life, about a new way of seeing things. Well, not quite. Not even the title track fits this idea. In fact, the songs seem to remind one of autumn. Each and every one of them has a slow, sad, nostalgic instrumental, which made me forget completely about that mountain trip. Now it's too cold for us to go to the mountains, let's just stay in our houses and watch the cold autumn rain falling outside.

And it's not only about the instrumentals; it's also about the lyrics. Even if the first two lyrics from the title track ("It's the first day of spring / And my life is starting over again") could make you believe that I'm wrong and these guys are actually speaking about new beginnings, the truth is another one. The songs off The First Days of Spring are songs about broken hearts, about regrets, about sadness, about separation. And the thought there's nothing you can actually do is everywhere.

It's a story about painful memories (The First Days of Spring), about knowing that it is time to brake up without being ready for it (Our Window), about the need to be on your lover's side (I Have Nothing), about numbness (My Broken Heart). The state of spirit changes somehow after Instrumental I, with the track Love of an Orchestra, but Instrumental II brings you back deep into sadness, preparing the field for Stranger. Maybe the most painful track (and definitely one of my favourites), Stranger describes the feelings of someone who slept with another person while still thinking of their former lover. Blue SkiesM shows a bit of hope ("It's time to leave those feelings behind"), even if it won't be easy. And the last two songs, Slow Glass and My Door Is Always Open, seem to bring the release. First one says that the two are strangers from now on, and second one denies even the former feelings they had for each other. Nevertheless, the lyrics of the last song seem to fit the idea of the title's track first few lines. And that makes you wonder if everything could actually be a cycle.

Even if that's the case or not, I must say that this album proved to be better than I thought, as I was prepared to write a review about an okay album. From this point of view, The First Days of Spring isn't a cycle, it is an evolution.

*photo courtesy of Cherrytree Records official site