The initial burst of attention for White Arrows leading up to its 2012 debut, Dry Land Is Not a Myth, certainly couldn't have hurt the band, if only because the appetite in the U.S. indie sphere for dance-friendly and vocally soaring work was so strong. What's a little odd to realize is how much singer Mickey Church recalls someone like Richard Ashcroft rather than, say, near contemporaries Active Child. It shades over into much of the album from the start thanks to "Roll Forever," with its hollow stutter percussion and epic rock guitar, keening background singers, and Church's own performance an enjoyable mix of shoegaze-derived lushness and a crisper edge. A certain kind of playfulness reigns throughout much of the album, whether it's the acid beats and falsetto on "Coming or Going" or the stripped-down quirk of "Get Gone." Something like "Golden" seems to be turning toward the sprightly/half-epic mode of the Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire while "Fireworks of the Sea" provides a mini-epic ending thanks to the reverb and space in the arrangement. Songs like the quick-paced "I Can Go" and the hyper-falsetto/march-paced "Getting Lost" play a bit more to the strengths of the band on a more rock-directed front, however sweetly or lushly arranged, but again, the vocalist's turn toward the Ashcroftian, this time in yearning/whine mode, end up sabotaging rather enhancing the results. But then a song like "Little Birds" will swing in, all feedback shimmer wash and sweet calls, the singer's voice treated to remove a bit of the edge, going big and making it work like James really was a dance band all along, and it'll all connect.
© Ned Raggett /TiVo