A gorgeous tapestry painted with the bold, the fragile and the beautiful.
Stunning in scope and daring in appearance,
Blaenavon have been teasing themselves for quite a while now. Spending years refining and experimenting with their sound, they seem to be a band who’ve been talked about or mentioned in breaths since they first emerged as spritely 16-year-olds. With each release, Blaenavon have laid out an extraordinary plethora of styles and swaggers - meaning nobody could really put a finger on exactly what Blaenavon were destined to be. Now with ‘That’s Your Lot’, they’ve laid their souls bare with a sublimely crafted album of bristling melodic swoons and gravity-defying moments that lines them out as a band who could become an influential force for a generation.
Variety crackles throughout, whether that’s the composed subtleties of ‘Let’s Pray’, the effortless charm of ‘
Orthodox Man’ (complete with the soothing choral-like backing) or the dynamic yin and yang of ‘
Alice Come Home’ and it’s delicate plucks merged with its tidal-wave esque explosion. That sort of balance plays a key part throughout, taking insular rawness and turning it into something of devastating beauty - unhinged, uncontrollable but undeniably true. ‘Prague 99’ is the classic Maccabees anthem the indie veterans wish they’d have written, with the ferocious outbursts of ‘
I Will Be The World’, the jolting ‘
Take Care’ and the swelling chills of ‘
Swans’ all playing their part in a record which never sits in one place for too long. Vulnerability can be just as powerful when screaming at the wall or curled away with the blinds pulled - and that’s where Blaenavon strike hardest. They look into the abyss and aren’t afraid to lay out everything they see.
