Chester Artists

Alt-J This Is All Yours, A Review by Eddy Browne

Everyone loves an underdog. It’s because it’s ingrained into the human psyche. We feel inspired and impressed when the little guy rises up and shows the rest just how good they are. Bloody good, in Alt-J’s case.

Alt-J came from absolutely nowhere. When they nonchalantly released their debut album ‘An Awesome Wave’ in 2012, it was immediately obvious that Alt-J weren’t just another indie quartet. Their sound was completely fresh; piano, guitar and synth dancing around one another, painting a picture more than it did a sound, all underlaid by those industrial, raw drum beats that drove the songs forward. And of course the achey moans of vocalist Joe Newman. It was a sound that only years of being confined to a University dorm could create, where they had to keep quiet and acoustic, leaving them to compensate for a lack of volume by making their music intense and vivid. This is why they attained such a passionate following so quickly, because if you listened to a song and liked it, you really liked it. Alt-J certainly knew what they were about. The problem was that there was hardly any niche to fit them into. What I mean by that is that they didn’t transcend genre, but you could hardly say “Oh yeah, Alt-J, that band that sounds just like (insert another band here)…” When you have no other bands to relate to, it’s actually harder to create an image or a direction for yourself because you aren’t confined to the same image that other, similar bands hold. So when Alt-J revealed that a second album was in the works, I felt extremely conflicted. On one hand, I was ecstatic that I’d get a second helping of the band that released my favourite album of all time. On the other, I was fearful because how could they possibly live up to ‘An Awesome Wave’? Or indeed, what direction would they take?

The first thing to be noticed is that ‘This Is All Yours’ is simpler. ‘Intro’, the album’s first song, alternates between just three notes for most of the first minute, and it’s just staccato vocals. No diving headfirst into a whirlwind of percussion and deep melody this time. Some might say it even borders on boring, but the vague and distorted vocals manage to keep it interesting enough. ‘Arrival In Nara’ brings echoes of their first album back, with a quiet and visceral guitar and piano duet creating something that’s truly pleasant just to listen to. As the album progresses to the middle, we get ‘Every Other Freckle’ and ‘Left Hand Free’, which are two of the most popular tracks on the album. ‘Every Other Freckle’ is a foray into a pretty cheeky physical romance ballad, with most of the emphasis on the vocals and pounding synth, with the vocals creating a distinct melody which is very ‘hummable’, explaining the track’s popularity. The next track, ‘Left Hand Free’ is particularly interesting, and is obviously very rock-y and blues-oriented. It’s the most conventional-sounding track on the album, and it reminds me a lot of some of the Arctic Monkeys’ romantically sleazy newer work, with the drawling vocals. The chorus really encourages you to shout along with it, which is something that Alt-J did before with ‘Breezeblocks’. It’s a great mixture of easy-listening and depth, which is what makes ‘Left Hand Free’ the funnest song in the album.

The second half of the album settles down into a more calm and soulful affair, with tracks such as ‘The Gospel of John Hurt’ and ‘Hunger Of The Pine’ creating toe-tapping yet subdued melodies, though never with the same layered depth and energy that songs such as ‘Tesselate’ or ‘Taro’ had from ‘An Awesome Wave’. ‘This Is All Yours’ ends with ‘Leaving Nara’, which, although coming across as slightly repetative, like ‘Arrival In Nara’, does wonders with the delayed guitar being plucked like a harp, overlaying the orchestral vocals and shifting octaves. This ends the album on a pretty good note. If you listen to the following silence for a couple of minutes, you’re greeted with the bonus track ‘Lovely Day’, a slow and sombre number.

All in all, ‘This Is All Yours’ is undeniably Alt-J. It’s got all the ingredients of their first album. That being said, you can give two different chefs the same ingredients and end up with two very different meals. The problem with it, basically, is that it feels sort of empty in parts. Particularly the three ‘Nara’ tracks, which are obviously meant to be dreamy and slow. But it doesn’t hurt to keep things interesting, even if you are going for a sombre approach. A lot of the songs sound like they started off a lot like an ‘An Awesome Wave’ track, with heavy layering and vivid, intense imagery, and then were spread thin, unlayering it all and making the track more linear. Because of this, some of the tracks sound simply uninteresting. The more melodic tracks like ‘Left Hand Free’ and ‘The Gospel Of John Hurt’ really saved the album for me, because they have the energy that makes them enjoyable to listen to.

I’m not quite sure what Alt-J were going for with ‘This Is All Yours’. They seem to have tried to go down a particular route with it. It’s simpler than their first album, and to an extent, more experimental. Some of it does shine with brilliance, but a lot of the time it sounds lost and spread thin, like Alt-J could have done more with it. Because of this, as much as I enjoy it, I just can’t say I was satisfied. They’re still excellent, though.

-Ed