These New Puritans

Hi I live in America and like this band a lot.

Yeah, me too. And while I find the new album pales in comparison to the debut, it has grown on me. But we may see it as classic sophomore slump in the future.

So if I were to have to choose between seeing this band and Fucked Up, I should see Fucked Up.

NB. I like Fucked Up but have seen them before, and I was curious about TNP because lots of people around here seem to like them.

Saw them live in 2008 (American here!) and even though me and one other person were the only ones who knew the lyrics to the songs, it was still a very BIG, fun performance. George kills it on the drums and is very fun to look at.

nobody has answered my criticisms of the album

'we want war' is one of the best songs of the last few months, but nothing else (apart from '5') lives up to it

nobody has answered my criticisms of the album

Nothing to answer, really, as I more or less agree with you.

I don't mind going to bat for these guys. Don't think that Hidden is as one dimensional as LJ has portrayed it. Sure there's repetition of certain themes and sounds, but they're being pulled into different shapes track by track and that's what makes it all hang together as an album IMO. Like those drums - yeah, they're always loud and militaristic, but sometimes they're banging out brute hip-hop-ish beats, other times they're more like some sort of ceremonial music by Purcell, like from one of his marches or something. It ends up suggesting this weird mix of current and historical tensions. Same with stuff like that sword sound that keeps popping up. Is it a Wu-Tang reference? Or is some sort of medievalist shit going on? (I love that sound btw, it's probably a bit naff throwing it in there as this signifier of menace, but I think it really works as a sound in itself. Kind of reminiscent of the way that Ben Frost used the howling wolves on his album last year in that respect?)

Odd that you picked up on the closing track, '5', because that's the one track that I couldn't imagine listening to outside of the context of the preceding tracks. Love the way it start out with those Vespertine-ish chimes, but then the woodwinds start playing what sounds like the same melody they played in 'Canticle' and then there's that choral melody that creeps in that seems to be looking back at 'Orion', but it's a lot more muted this time round. Give it a few more listens as a whole, cos things will start falling into place a bit better then.

BTW:

16 July 2010

Big News:

ĦỊĐĐỂŅ LIVE

This winter, These New Puritans present ‘Hidden Live’ – a chance to to witness the album
performed, as it was recorded, with 15-piece brass and woodwind ensemble, multiple
prepared-pianos, live Foley techniques, taiko drums and more; the orchestra will be
conducted by André de Ridder (Gorillaz, Monkey). Following on from the debut per-
formance at London’s Barbican Centre in October with the Britten Sinfonia there will follow
shows at the the Pompidou Centre, Paris, and Crossing Border Festival, Den Hague with more
to be announced in the coming weeks.

Kudos to Dorian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/07/these-new-puritans-hidden-interview

Thanks Nick. They were exactly how I wanted them to be.

Extremely good article -- got me interested in the band singlehandedly!

Bump.

All about Fire-Power.

The music's pretty interesting, but the singing reminds me of Audio Bullys. Also could do with some metal guitars here and there.

I'm very, very glad at the absence of metal guitars.

^ see the last paragraph of Dorian's piece linked above

But yeah, I could see how they might work in a Young Gods or Tricky 'Black Steel' way.

There are just a couple of drops that could use a bit more oomph, and some nice crunchy guitars would do it for me.

Man I really slept on this record this year. Amazing stuff, it's like Mezzanine-era Massive Attack meets Nine Inch Nails meets MIA meets Benjamin Britten meets a really half-arsed singer.

Actually, the vocals are fine if you think of them as imitation 3D or Karl Hyde or someone. But yeah, kind of stunned that anyone would even try and make an album like this, let alone pull it off.

Also I would like to hear Dan Perry's opinion on this.

I have a favorable bias towards this album but get quickly bored whenever something comes up on shuffle on the ipod - I guess that might not be the best way to get into it.

Yeah I can imagine it wouldn't sound too great popping up between Tensnake and Nicki Minaj but that's the same with most dark, album-oriented rock music.

So are they the reason The Fall left Domino?

I am massively intrigued by your description and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

These are the last two singles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vasNDS9BXJI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suLfDbNHw7c

There's various live stuff on Youtube too, but I don't think that stuff translates as well.

I've listened to the first 4 tracks on this now and HOLY SHIT

well that took long enough!

I'm really not sure what to make of this on my first listen, really surprised the NME made it album of the year.

Did anyone notice the first thirty seconds of Fire-Power sound very similar to Scritlocks Door by Scritti Politti? especially the vocals.

I've tried fairly hard to get into this because I like artists who try and do something different, but I can't really. Not to say it's bad, just probably not for me.

idg this album at *all* apart from the big single, as I've said

that's because you're crazy

Indeed. I don't understand how you can love We Want War and not get the rest. It's all of a piece.

It's mostly not that different from the big single so you're probably going on some weird Hongroesque ideological stance about song length or number of sections, right?

It's totally song length snobbishness, considering that the most immediately involving song on the album to my ears is "Three Thousand".

hmm

maybe listening to the individual songs on Youtube isn't the best way to approach this record

although stuff like 'attack music' and 'hologram' and 'fire-power' doesn't grab me

we want war just has a way cooler build and narrative flow, plus the choral and woodwind chord-progressions in the second half are staggering

try maybe listening to the album before announcing that the entire thing is terrible...?

it totally ISN'T song-length snobbishness, although there's a possibility that what they're trying to do is best served by a lengthier canvas - all about subtle shifts and increments

Dan the thing is that I have listened to all the songs! Just not in order

If there's one thing this album ISN'T about it's subtlety.

well, there's something that seems sophisticated and fully worked-out about WWW, especially in the chord-sequences and sonic layering, that lacks in the other songs - maybe I'll come round to them

lol

I decided to check out earlier stuff by them and was repelled by the first 10 seconds of "Elvis", after which it suddenly became incredibly compelling

I mean, at least The Horrors had the decency to follow up their staggering epic 'wait this isn't that scrawny buncha garagey tryhards' preview single with an album that kinda lived up to it

haha ok I'll stop now

no you won't

don't get you can you like "we want war" and not "drum courts"

ok yeah who's 2011's breakout indie-gone-classy band gonna be, dibs on Two Door Cinema Club

there's a distinct sense of nerdiness to this band...or maybe it's that it's ambitious in a really transparent way, like they're just forcing together all these elements and it doesn't quite work for me.

not a big fan of the album as a whole either, it's kind of monotonous and cold and humorless. sounds like liars without the elements of fun and chaos. i do like "we want war."

i'm a sucker for the great reich-ian art/prog rock jams on this album, like "5," which even has what sounds like an oboe or two

monotonous and cold and humorless

A massive selling point! (Well, for me.)

This is a really creative album and I'm happy it's getting some love in the UK

Ned, have you investigated this yet?

feel spoiled by new TNP and Real Lies albums in the same couple of months. humour me here, it's like when Bark Psychosis albums were coming out at the same time as Disco Inferno's

"bells" is the best thing they've ever done so i'm fully expecting the album to live up to that

doing a discog run, pretty sure this is the greatest band of all time that isn't the radio dept.

Need to go back and listen to Hidden one of these days, feel like it could hard in this present moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmRykHQsoIM

nowhere near as incredible as the first two singles but still pretty decent

i like this, good to know the new one will have its loud moments

ah the beautiful isle of sheppey

Yeah I like this as a clear contrast to the other released tracks - it’s as if they updated Hidden vibes for their current sound/approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vad8yBqJZuU

pretty good!

Two more days until the entire album is released. This has been a very long countdown

i really like how they're trying to recreate depeche mode without synthesisers here

"bells" is still the best thing i've heard all year

Couldn't wait for my preorder to be released tomorrow. The leak is out and yeah, this is fantastic. Can report that the early promise of Bells is upheld, particularly on the quieter second half. Title track is chill-inducing.

nothing else quite touches "bells" but this is still excellent and their best work

I had sky-high expectations for this and fuuuccckkk it delivers.

"Industrial Love Song" had me worried they weren't going to be industrial at all this time, but "Wild Fields" delivers. (I do like the whole thing, but I tend to like them more the louder the drums are)

The Old World is gorgeous

(as is the whole album obviously)

this is lovely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4gXY64fyws

I think "The Old World" is my favorite but this album is packed with contenders for best song