The Watanabes – Spoiled & Nostalgic
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| The Watanabes - Spoiled & Nostalgic |
Release Date: 25th November 2016
For a huge part of my life I used
to listen to obscure artists that I had heard on late night radio and had that
ironically lonely thought that I would be the only one listening. Some of those
moments, listening on headphones in the dead of night, felt highly intimate and
life affirming at times. The reason I mention all this is that The Watanabes
fight beautifully in to that category for me with their gentle but precise folk
infused indie. This latest EP from the Japan based quartet is a thing of subtle
beauty that could soothe the weariest of souls at their lowest ebb.
‘Over Romantic’ gets things going
with a song with a gentle acoustic strum with a country twang and some intimate
vocals and a real sense of late night soul searching. This is the song for that
moment – maybe a second, maybe an hour, maybe a day – when you realise that the
relationship you’ve been mourning is well and truly over. Building like a
Teenage Fan Club indie romp or a David Kitt folk ramble this song has a
tear-jerking lilt to it which puts its arm around you and whispers “let it all
out, mate”. On ‘Tonight’, the band get in to late night jam mode with picked
guitar swirling like smoke circles and some organ rippling like whisky rolling
over ice cubes and settling in to the glass. Bliss.
The song that got me thinking
about my musical youth is ‘An Insult to the Present’, a song that looks back to
bygone times but then shakes its head, puffs out its cheeks and just, well,
just gets on with the here and now. Those delicate, soft pop vocals dance on
the breeze created by the simple picked acoustic line and piano notes that
suggest this could easily be turned in to a dance track of an uplifting nature.
The EP closes off with ‘Hummingbird’ and the sweetness and purity of this band
shines through to envelope your soul and send you on your way with a song in
your heart – “You can open up your window, let the sunshine smother you”. You
can almost smell the cherry blossom, can’t you? I’ll say it again, bliss. Sheer
bliss.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/thewatanabes/?fref=ts
Download Here:
Live Dates:
23rd November – What The Dickens!, Ebisu
(Acoustic)
10th December – Hot Buttered Club, Shibuya
18th December – Christmas Art Party @ Bauhaus,
Roppongi
24th December – What The Dickens!,
Ebisu