All You Need Is Just A Little Patience

When you hear someone saying Wish You Were Here, the first thing that comes to your mind is Pink Floyd. So I guess this might be a good reason for The Concretes to call their new album WYWH instead of Wish You Were Here. After all, everyone wants to be original, right? However, in certain aspects, this band is not exactly your type of regular indie pop band. They started as a trio back in 1995, now they're eight and only a person left the band. Pretty unusual.

But let's focus on their new release, because that's the main reason you are reading this article, no? It's hard to say something about this album after the first listening other than that it's the same old recipe. As you might have guessed, it's not because the songs are a hard pill to swallow whole. The Concretes are well known for composing songs that include heavy orchestration, while being at the same time pop-friendly and light. The tracks on WYWH make no exception, being really nice and lovely and bringing you peace in your soul yada yada. The problem is that this is the only impression you'll be left with after the first listening. The album serves as a really nice background – too much friendliness, but no sparkling.

However, if you're a person who does not give up too easily, you'll probably press the play button again. And it will definitely serve you right. It takes two, even three listenings to completely understand and enjoy the instrumentals. Yes, they are light and keep a simple path, but sometimes it takes a lot of hard work to achieve simplicity. It's true there's nothing chaotic here, nothing anxious, nothing that will change the meaning of the world as you knew it. But every single drum beat, every guitar chord, every organ note seem to be especially written to illustrate the meaning of the word "harmony". It seems like The Concretes wanted to prove us there are two things that will stay the same until the end: the law of gravity and their music (and I'm not quite positive about the first one).

And after you've listened to this album three times, you might be surprised to realise that there are actually some songs that ask for their rights to your love and appreciation. Like Good Evening, the first track, a song built on a really simple drum beat, with guitar coming as reinforcement. Or Crack In the Paint that starts with a really interesting organ and throws in every now and then some horns. There's also Sing For Me with its eerie instrumental that serves more as a background for the amazing vocals and WYWH, perhaps the most catchy song on the album, with a rhythmic beat that will force you to tap your foot from the start till the end.
And while WYWH might disappoint those of you who are not patient enough or/and in a hurry, these tracks prove that, if you'll pay enough attention, you'll realise there's much more of it than it seems at the first listening.


*photo courtesy of The Concretes' MySpace.