We Were Promised Jetpacks: These Four Walls
There is something inherently magical about a debut album. You get to hear a band in its formative stages, before they become worn down by the daily grind of touring and recording. As a band evolves, the first album might sound quaint and unfinished, but the initial spark always remains. These Four Walls contains more than a spark. Instead of an interesting idea, We Were Promised Jetpacks has a fully formed vision.
The band’s sound is hard to describe, a mixture of industrial dissonance and rock n’ roll beats. Icy guitars coupled with emotional singing. We Were Promised Jetpacks share many traits with other bands in the indie rock ghetto, but completely different from anything else released this year.
These Four Walls is an album of dynamics; loud and soft, fast and slow. The band switches those elements several times, creating a collage of sound. When you start to get comfortable, the song changes direction. The more you listen to it, the more you pick up. The opening track, “It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning,” sounds like a storm. It starts out slowly and steadily, picking up with every measure. The middle section is a torrent of fury. Conventional wisdom states that the track would fade out, but the band quickens the tempo and plays a different riff. These Four Walls is almost an album of mini-suites.
Lead singer Adam Thomson is possibly the band’s biggest asset. His thick Scottish accent is not only unique, but incredibly emotional. When his voice rises, it’s never a scream or even a high note; it’s a rock hard slab of granite. On “Roll Up Your Sleeves,” he sounds amiable and almost friendly, but the chorus changes the entire tone. His voice is strong and powerful, and when he holds a note, it seems to come from the depths of his diaphragm. His accent takes some getting used to, but it has character. You can’t listen to Thomson and say “He sounds like (blank).”
The album’s centerpiece is the eight minute epic, “Keeping Warm.” The first half is instrumental. It’s the one moment where you can actually pinpoint an influence. The song starts simply and gets progressively bigger, similar to the slow burn of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.” When the instruments finally swell, Thomson sings “Keep warm, keep warm.” The music dies down at first, but then the pace quickens and the second half of the song begins. Eight minutes is an indulgent length, but if they had split it into two parts, the contrast would be gone.
These Four Walls is an incredibly accomplished debut. It’s too early to call it an instant classic, or even the best of the year. However, this band shows an unbelievable amount of potential. It’ll be interesting to see where they take their sound next, because it’s truly unique. Do not hesitate to pick this up.
