Guillemots - Walk The River Review

On 18^th April, Guillemots will release Walk The River, their third studio album, following their 2006 #17 record Through The Windowpane, and their 2008 #9 Red. Led by Fyfe Dangerfield, a name made recognisable by his John Lewis Billy Joel cover, Guillemots have a certain reputation for their unrestrained and elaborate use of instruments, alternative turn of phrase and for being individual in the true sense of the word. With a third album often resulting in compromise, Walk The River was always going to be tricky.

The album opens with the title track and immediately it’s clear that this is an album a lot closer to Red than Through The Windowpane. Walk The River is a record of twelve well-polished and well-produced tracks that are surprisingly radio-friendly for Guillemots. ‘Fell in love with a boy, grew tired of it’ are the lyrics that introduce the album, instantly ambiguous and accompanied by building drums, it’s unmistakeably Guillemots.

With very few other bands would it be necessary to consult a dictionary for a song title; ‘Vermillion’, the second and one of the strongest tracks on the album, applies to a red pigmentation, like the colour of the sky at sunset. Again, a slick and tidy song, Dangerfield’s vocals cut right through as he cries ‘play on, play on, play on, the skies are made vermillion’, the poetic method guiding the madness of the instrumentation.

‘I Don’t Feel Amazing Now’ is another glossy track, and although it begins and ends with the inhale and exhale of a string section, it’s another one for the radio. And this is where the only possible problem lies. Through The Windowpane was so free and so utterly distinctive that anything following will inevitably feel just a tad impersonal. Red was noticeably more refined, but still there was delicacy in songs like ‘Falling Out Of Reach’ that made it feel a bit special, like a private and exclusive secret. Walk The River is without question a brilliant album that deserves a lot of recognition, yet it lacks the uniqueness and wild individuality that the previous albums held so close. There’s no ‘Blue Would Still Be Blue’, no ‘If The World Ends’ - tracks that catch your breath and sting your eyes.

Don’t get me wrong; this is an album for the band to be proud of, an album that will hopefully bring them the success they deserve. Devotion to a band can often lead to selfishness, and so when a much more popular-sounding album is released, one finds themselves a bit disappointed, trying desperately to look through the songs for the shred of individuality that only one can truly appreciate. Guillemots have progressed with this album, which of course was necessary for them to do because nothing can go anywhere good if it stays in the same place, but it’s just a shame that the further forward the movement, the further away from Through The Windowpane it is. Walk The River is still wonderfully original, it’s still fantastically Guillemots and it’s still one of the best albums of the year so far, but don’t you just hate it when a band gets popular?

By Rosie