With folky British singer-songrwriters achieving greater prevalence of late, lesser known bands like Noah and the Whale are beginning to break through. Following the release of the sunshine-filled “5 Years’ Time”, the BBC 6 Music regulars are back with the release on 7” of “2 Bodies, 1 Heart”.
Acoustic music is so often wrongly poked with the misery stick, but what makes “2 Bodies, 1 Heart” in particular, and Noah and the Whale in general, so good is their amazing ability to combine melancholia with chirpiness (to the extent that that is actually possible).

While their melodies are nicely upbeat, their guitar and percussion suitably plinky-plonky, the sound is cut through by the nasal Leonard Cohen-esque voice of Charlie, and the haunting backing vocals of the soon to be massive Laura Marling. Noah and the Whale do this best on “Rocks and Daggers”, their wonderful Irish Jig of a Christmas song which is filled with festive joviality and speckled with heartache in equal measures.
“2 Bodies, 1 Heart” is available to download and on 7” from selected stores,and you can next catch them live headlining ‘Blue Flowers’ in Chiswick on 2nd February.
A challenge for you - watch the video and see if you can ever get the chorus out of your head:

[video: whale2008]

Possibly related:

1. The Greatest Song in the World This Week : ‘House of Cards’ - Radiohead

2. The Greatest Song in the World This Week - All I Want for Christmas - Mariah Carey

3. The Greatest Song In The World This Week: John Martyn - “Solid Air”

4. The Greatest Song in the World This Week: Radiohead - “Jigsaw Falling into Place”

5. The Greatest Song in the World This Week: Laura Marling - “Ghosts”

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Posted by laurasilver on Friday January 25th, 2008 at 1:30 pm