Quality from start to end.
Duels may be a band who has slipped under your radar so far but that has to change as their new album ‘The Barbarians Move In’ is the sound of a band hitting peak form and producing a rare thing for these, a complete and comprehensive album.
Opener ‘The Furies’ is an excellent start to the album, an admittedly dark and foreboding opening but there are a number of great moments peppered throughout that really catch the listener. The sniping drum riffs, the country esque guitar riff at the end of a line, the frenzied guitar freak-out that appears with a minute and a half to go and some very Thom Yorke like vocals. The opening track only lasts for four and a half minutes and yet Duels manage to cram in as many points of note and interest that some albums struggle to match. It’s a really impressive opening to ‘The Barbarians Move In’ and it doesn’t let it up on the next song.
Kicking off like the darker uncle of Elbow’s ‘Grounds For Divorce’, ‘Sleeping Giants’ has that sort of rhythm track that grabs you in and just wont let go. There are a number of layers at work on the track and all combine to create a nervous buzz of energy throughout the song, which sits perfectly with the slightly manic air of the lead vocals of John Foulger.
Moments like ‘The Healing’ are lighter in tone although still not really upbeat party songs, it borrows a brief line from the Rolling Stones ‘Ruby Tuesday’ but they manage to capture the paranoid edge of ‘We Love You’ even more. As a lazy comparison goes its up there because a lot of this is due to the jangling piano undercurrent but there is a definite of all not being as well as the song would imply.
It’s an extremely well crafted record and when you consider the band produced it themselves then all kudos has to go to Duels as they have sculpted a complete piece of work here, and that is becoming all too rare with regards to albums these days. Whisper it but if this form of album had been released by Radiohead, people would be falling over themselves to praise it for the way that each song has its own identity but it slots into place neatly with regards to the full album.
‘The Barbarians move in’ is cinematic in places in the way it builds terror and fear and dark vibes through its music but that’s no reason not to check out the record. The continually edgy rhythm offers a fantastic energy and drive throughout and it is hard to find much fault with the album. The lead vocals possibly fall into the camp where they are high pitched enough to love or loathe but on the whole, it’s an album that meshes extremely well and should be commended as such.