In this era of attention seeking something as basic as a trip to the shops can be classed as a near death experience, but trust us, Circa Waves’ Kieran Shudall has the real deal. Suffering from chest pains for months, the singer was eventually diagnosed with a blocked aorta and the cure involved a some you win, some you lose brand of surgery. As you’re reading this then you can conclude it took the happy path.
The ‘Waves have enjoyed one of those stop start careers, punctuated by the mega mega hit T-Shirt Weather in 2016, but now recovering on the other side, Shudall was determined to make the most of his second chance. Describing the writing process as “Both terrifying and liberating”, Death and Love Part 1 is the singer has chosen on it to mostly leave the what could’ve beens for another day, instead amping up the hedonism, as is surely his prerogative.
At nine tracks and clocking in at just under thirty minutes, there’s a feeling of no time to waste. After the pounding travelogue opener American Dream the listener bounces directly into the peak Strokes-esque Like You Did, but whilst the pulse is often quick, stylistically it treads a narrow and orthodox path. The most affecting moment Blue Damselfy is unsurprisingly the one time the pace buckles, however whilst Death and Love Part 1 has it’s roots in what could’ve been a tragedy, there’s never enough peril here to make it much beyond an interesting footnote.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 