Album Review – The Dawn Chorus

dawn-chorus

The Dawn Chorus -‘The Carnival Leaves Town’ (Jelly Maid Music)

Jellymaid Music, based in Portsmouth, England, have been responsible for putting out a couple of gems. Last year it was The B Of The Bang’s Beginning. Middle. End and The Autons’ Who Do You Think You Are Kidding?– and this year it is the sophomore album from the Dawn Chorus.

Much as I loved ‘The Hope Will Kill Us’ from from the band’s debut album The Big Adventure, I wasn’t blown away by the parent album. But since this album arrived in my in-tray, it has enjoyed several listens and a definite thumbs up from yours truly. Comparisons have been made with Gogol Bordello – not because they actually sound anything like them, but because of the spirit of the album. It truly is the spirit of a Carnival; arrival, show and departure all.

There’s thankfully no press release sporting a lot of crap about a thread running throughout the album, so it works both as an album in its’ own right and with some standout tracks. These would have to include ‘Carnivalesque’ (featuring Frank Turner which they’re chuffed to bits about) and ‘The Guilt.’ Is it a ‘concept’ album? Who knows? It’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Musically, comparisons could be made with the likes of The Coral’s first album – the fact that some of these songs could be sea shantys, and rather like that first album, they’re throwing everything in there and making something wonderful. Broken Records, for the way the seem to be inocorporating bits of other ‘folk’ music (for want of a better label) and making something that is distinctively theirs. And like labelmates The B of the Bang, the feeling that they understand that a rimeless pop song does not mean it has to sound like another 1960s rip-off.

The band have grown considerably over the last couple of years, and hopefully this album will win the plaudits it so richly deserves.

****

The Carnival Leaves Town is out now on Jelly Maid Music.

Go here to download the mighty ‘carnivalesque’ for free. All they ask for is your email, which seems pretty reasonable.

The Dawn Chorus website/The Dawn Chorus myspace

Presenting…The Dawn Chorus

Hi there.

Apologies to anyone who’s been looking here and wondering where the posts have been this week…there’s been way too much work to do, and there’ve been a lot of CDs dropping on the mat at 17 Seconds Towers and emails and mp3s…I’m working on it. Promise. So there will be a fair few posts over the next few days.

Anyway, one band I’ve been meaning to post on for the last few days are the fantastic English five piece The Dawn Chorus. Hailing from the English south coast, they have released three ‘well-received’ (as they say) EPs and are now set to release their debut album The Big Adventure soon. I think this will appeal to fans of bands like British Sea Power and Brakes (or BrakesBrakesBrakes for US readers) and the comparisons with Wilco and Bright Eyes are also quite accurate too.

For their early stuff investigate Downloads here, from their web page, and for two tracks off their latest single try these:

The Dawn Chorus -‘The Hope will Kill Us.’ mp3

The Dawn Chorus -‘Heart Of Hearts.’ mp3

The band are playing live in the next few months, check their mySpace for details (and maybe they’ll get further north than London. Please!!

As always, please let me know what you think

The Dawn Chorus website/The Dawn Chorus MySpace