Morrissey & Marshall – We Rise (Mass Market Recordings)
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| Morrissey & Marshall - We Rise |
Release Date: Out Now
Confession time folks. Whenever I
get sent CDs to review (actual, physical CDs) they usually go in to a pile in
my car and get sifted through as I drive. This one slipped down the side of the
passenger seat so I missed the release date by a couple of weeks. Nevertheless,
I was hugely impressed by this second album by London dwelling Dublin duo so I
wanted to give you a heads up. ‘We Rise’ opens up with ‘Cold November Sunrise’
and immediately you are hooked in to one of the most anthemic indie anthems of
recent times. The hypnotic opening bars are soon blown away by some rhythmic
horns and a funky little riff paving way for these lyrics “Imagine the hand of
a blank man feeling his brother’s heartbeat, holding the chest of a white man
out and proud in the street”. This song lays down a marker for the album with
themes of inclusion, standing up to ignorance and generally getting the best
out of life. It’s an incredibly strong start.
Now, I have an issue with the
track ordering on this album as I think more could have been made of that
opening before dropping down to the Phil Spector inspired ‘Love & Be Loved’.
It’s a fine tune but the kaleidoscopic melodies lose something of the earlier
momentum in the gentle acoustic strum and rich harmonies. Nevertheless, the
funk and rock themes are back on ‘Play On’ as the band channel the Happy
Mondays, Stone Roses and Kasabian for a proper indie anthem for those sweaty
club shows. Then you have a ‘Hangin’ Around’ which takes Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit
In The Sky’ riff and mangles it through some sort of psychedelic meat grinder –
in a really good way, though. ‘She’s Got Love’, by contrast, is a straight up,
Beatles inspired love song that you could easily expect to hear as a first
dance at indie weddings all across the land.
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| Morrissey & Marshall - like Ant & Dec |
The second half of the album
opens with the sprinkled optimism of ‘Stand Down’ which slowly emerges in to
another anthem with the twin vocals clenching fists and punching the air among
a defiant barrage of drums and disorientating guitars. You can’t help but feel
that if Liam Gallagher had this quality of songwriting and production behind
his solo debut he would be being carried at shoulder height through the streets
of Manchester by now. There’s a sense of 80s pomp around ‘Beautiful World’ but
if you strip that away you get a great, Deacon Blue inspired window on to the
world with lines that floor you with their blunt perceptiveness: “Who stole
creative souls and made them live their lives by remote controls and why did
they do it?”.
After the bombast of some of the
earlier tracks it is surprising but not unwelcome to come across the slow
country chug of ‘We’re The Greatest’ with it’s layered, Lennon-esque climax. ‘I
Need You’ is one of those songs that is beautiful in it’s pure simplicity with
raw vocals atop some warm piano notes – I hope they never even considered
recording this song with anything else as it’s just perfect the way it is. The
album closes with a relatively short song, ‘The Light Breaks’, which has a
beautifully gentle acoustic ripple about and those intertwining vocals are pure
Simon and Garfunkel. The Morrissey and Marshall story of packing up their
guitars and heading to London from Ireland to find their fortune is the stuff
of a screenwriter’s wet dream and the fact that the soundtrack would be this
good just makes it even more of a no
brainer.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/morrisseyandmarshall/
Live Dates:
6th September – De Maatschappij, Scheveningen
7th September – Kino, Rotterdam
8th September – Frietrock Festival, Ypres
10th September – Hedon Zwolle, Zwolle
16th September – Mike The Pies, Listowel
25th September – Galerie Cinema, Essen
26th September – Galerie Cinema, Essen