Tellison-The Wages Of Fear
With quite a gap having formed since 2007's well-received 'Contact! Contact!' debut, London four-piece Tellison have returned with a thick slice of driving and impassioned indie-rock. Mixing elements of Death Cab For Cutie and Built To Spill into the more recent three-minute indie ditty formula, "The Wages of Fear" has a lot more to sink one's teeth into than most of the current utilisers of the latter.
The use of multiple vocals and harmonies, as on the racing 'Collarbone', give it a much more layered and inventive feel than to that of The Libertines or Franz Ferdinand and the relaxed nuances that usher in 'Freud Links the Teeth and the Heart' allow them to venture into the more restrained territory that Ben Gibbard's crew can often be found in. Both 'Know Thy Foe' and 'Horses' have raging choruses that'll be swirling round your head for days, truly elevated out of the norm by Stephen Davidon's often unpredictable vocal lines. The use of quiet to loud dynamics is also done in a much more evoking way than other bands in the scene with different atmospheres being felt throughout the album as it dips and dives.
Unfortunately the album does, at times, fully slip onto the well trodden path of modern British indie radio-rock blueprint and suffers because of it, leaving songs such as 'Rapture' and 'Edith' feeling overly familiar and somewhat flat. Thankfully, 'Tell It To Thebes' has an anthemic stomp above puncturing electronics and album closer, 'My Wife's Grave Is In Paris' has a genuine sadness to it and an oddly rousing melancholic piano undercurrent, the song's build-up is tense and emotional as it slowly climbs to its zenith, it's here, alongside the handful of knock-out choruses, that the band are most effective and memorable.
This is therefore a solid indie-rock album for any fan of the current state of the genre and should serve the band well indeed, if on their next record they focus on the more successful elements here and avoid an over-used blueprint they could really be onto something. For now though this is decent mostly familiar stuff.