...And Then We Saw Land
Tunng
Score:67
Reviewer: Justin Pearsall
Label: Full Time Hobby (UK), Thrill Jockey (USA), Pod (Australia)
Reviewed: Mar 23rd '10, Released:2010
Not many bands can lose their lead singer, founder and songwriter and go on. Thankfully, for a few reasons, Tunng are one such band.
Firstly, there’s the personnel themselves. Former male lead Sam Genders imprinted himself as another instrument in the palette of the group. While the voice of new male lead Mike Lindsay is more prominent in Tunng’s less experimental new album, his style sits within the straighter folk of …And Then We Saw Land in a similarly understated way. The change doesn’t drastically alter the band’s personality because both Genders and Lindsay are essentially writing folk songs and singing them in an indistinct, but entirely appropriate manner.
Despite this synergy …And Then We Saw Land is a considerably different album. The big change, though, comes not in a radical departure in style but in the execution and colouring of material. Where Good Arrows, Tunng’s last album, would place a song behind field recordings and sound collages, on this album the order is reversed. The song is front-and-centre and the accompanying noise is generally that, an accompaniment.
The role reversal does have considerable upside for Tunng as many of the album’s better tracks avoid the clutter that dampened the best of Good Arrows. Examples include the rollicking pop opener ‘Hustle’ and the delicate folk of ‘It Breaks’ and ‘With Whiskey’. These songs shine in their organic environment and show that there are more than bells and whistles behind the band.
A more experimental highlight, and the song that is perhaps the ideal middle ground between construction and production, is ‘Don’t Look Down or Back’. Starting as a fairly standard folk moment it morphs into a driving chorus that shakes Tunng’s typical sound and provides a needed counterpoint for the album.
Unfortunately, there are not enough of these counterpoints to lift …And Then We Saw Land out of that ‘good-but-not-great’ territory. It may be the change in personnel or Tunng coming to grips with the new formula, but whatever the reason …And Then We Saw Land is in need of a serious edit. Even the better songs outgrow their welcome and weaker tracks like ‘The Roadside’ are worsened by long playing times. The effect of all this is an album that has some great songs, some average moments and too long a running time.
Post-Genders Tunng are easily differentiated by their straighter, more song-based sound. A more difficult question is: are they better? From …And Then We Saw Land the answer isn’t clear. But there is enough on the new album to suggest that they can produce great tracks in this new setting. With self-editing and some further gestation, who knows they might make a great album as well.
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