WU LYF - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain [L Y F]

8.4

Opening an album with a wide-open organ sound very similar to the ones you hear at Sunday mass can be offsetting, but don’t be misled. WU LYF brings to the plate a fresh and visceral approach to music with bombastic drumming, expansive production, tidal waves of surfy guitar, and incomprehensible vocals. These Manchester boys have actually received considerable hype from numerous scouting reports from sources such as The Guardian, NME, and others, with predictions for them to shape 2011 and coming years. Hype sucks, but WU LYF came through with a very solid record, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain.

Everywhere I’ve read reviews for WU LYF’s unique vocalist Ellery Roberts is that he’s like a modern Tom Waits, I can see the comparisons, but really Roberts is one of a kind with his near-snarl, unintelligible growls that he puts across very dynamic instrumentation. Seriously, the some of the only lines you’ll be able to clearly translate from Go Tell Fire to the Mountain is the tribal yelps of “We bros!” from one of the weakest tracks “We Bros”. The vicious attacks of Roberts onto the mic are exhilarating and unique and shadow the yelps of a handful of hardcore-punk vocalists.

Being recorded in a church, you can automatically expect Go Tell Fire to the Mountain to sound gloriously epic and big like a post-rock record, but WU LYF keeps within the confines of not being one. Huge echoes, especially from the monumental drumming of Joe Manning, reach across the sounds of the LP on every song. The guitar work sounds very Explosions In the Sky-ish with that very dramatic, distinct guitar twang that can’t help but sounding great amongst WU LYF incredible talent. The glorious guitar at the tail end of “Concrete Gold” almost completely shows WU LYF at their best.

The finale “Heavy Pop” easily shows WU LYF at their best with steady building of piano into a plethora of sound with Roberts’s gruff yells with the gloriously epic guitars all backed by the intricate drumming. It all fits so nicely in a compacted shell that is WU LYF. Unfortunately, as one would say “hates gonna hate” due to the great deal of hype that is going along with WU LYF’s image, but I don’t think it should kill WU LYF’s debut’s image greatly. But a band as secretive as WU LYF, the image of being controversial to the indie community is quite great news to them.