Noah & the Whale Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down by: Steve Scully Fri:03-Oct-08 Label: Interscope Year: 2008 WB rating 84 out of 100

There are two faces to Noah & the Whale; Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down has both in equal parts. First, there’s the natural face of the group. Glockenspiels shadow Charlie Fink’s irrepressible melodic hooks, violins flicker in and out of frame, ukuleles are plucked feverishly and group sing-offs reign as the most popular past time. At their best, this band is amongst the most lovable folk-pop group doing the rounds.

Then there is the second face of the group. This face is the less lovable: a wolf in skinny-leg jeans, you might say. It’s not as if the band is at all malevolent, let’s get that straight. Rather, there’s the uneasy sensation that the joyous personae of the band isentirely contrived.

Nonetheless, with straight-out winning tracks like ‘Shape of My Heart’, ‘2 Atoms in a Molecule’ and ‘5 Years Time’, Noah & the Whale is a charming band, exuding not merely summery appeal but a knack for hitting the pop bull’s-eye with surprising consistency. Such a penchant for logorrhea as Fink displays would see a lesser lyricist offer up only the occasional snippet of sense, but that’s not the case here. Strangely poetic, and imbued with a self-deprecating quirkiness that will see Noah’s songs included on many an indie film’s soundtrack for years to come, Fink’s lyrics are oddly touching. In one verse, Fink can play the hopeless romantic – “Last night, I had a dream we were inseparably entwined/ Like a piece of rope made out of two pieces of vine/ Held together, holding each other with no one else in mind/ Like two atoms in a molecule, inseparably combined” – in the next he can dispel any sense of romanticism in favour of detached cynicism: “But then I woke from the dream to realise I was alone/ A tragic event, I must admit, but let's not be overblown/ I'm gonna try to write a love song, just a sad, pathetic moan/ And maybe I just need change, maybe I just need a new cologne” (‘2 Atoms in a Molecule’).

The ability to construct a complex pop song, while still managing to make it sound as simple and accessible as possible: that’s a difficult thing to master. Noah & The Whale sometimes hit the target right on the head. ‘Shape of My Heart’, for one, is absolutely stunning. A few years ago, Aberfeldy released a small but poignant number called ‘Love is an Arrow’, and ‘Shape of My Heart’ has a similar, if slightly more dramatic appeal. Whilst Aberfeldy’s number hit its chord with a simple and raw recording, ‘Shape’ offers a surprisingly vast arrangement of an array of guitars, horns, strings and vocal harmonies, all based on a basic, taut melodic structure.

The first sign of their other face, of possible emotional barrenness, comes through the band’s name: Noah & The Whale. On the face of it a Biblical mix-up, the name was actually taken from one of the band’s favourite films, ‘The Squid and the Whale’ directed by Noah Baumbach. They are avid fans of Baumbach and the films of Wes Anderson. Now, this might seem a long bow to draw, but Anderson’s films are often criticized for their rather idiosyncratic approach to emotional manipulation, i.e. the direction and scripting is so clean, and often so unremarkable and deadpan, that the emotional content is often overshadowed. Anderson is, in a way, the master of getting actors to perform shockingly heart-wrenching scenes in an overwhelmingly deadpan, often darkly humorous tone. So what does this say about Noah & the Whale’s view of art? It is at once their strength and their greatest weakness that any real emotive basis to their art is entirely overshadowed by the shiny playfulness of the execution.

Despite any reservations you might have about the band’s depth, there is not doubt that their sound is fresh, extremely enjoyable, and infectious enough to melt the heart of even the bluntest and dullest cynic on the block. Perhaps for them to create their masterpiece, Noah & the Whale should practice what they preach: “it’s the rain, not just the sun that helps it bloom” (‘Shape of My Heart’), Fink sings, and an added eye for and appreciation of the rain, the occasional greyness and rawness of life, might just add that final weight to their art.