FEATURE:
Second Spin
Wild Beasts – Limbo, Panto
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IN terms of the…
two types of albums that I feature on Second Spin – those that were underrated when they were released and those that are not talked about much now -, Wild Beasts’ debut album, Limbo, Panto, is one that was received well when it came out but, in terms of their cannon, I think other albums of theirs have gathered more love and play. Hayden Thorpe (vocals, guitar, piano), Ben Little (guitar), Tom Fleming (vocals, bass guitar) and Chris Talbot (drums, backing vocals) parted ways in 2017 but the Cumbrian band, formed in 2002, made a huge mark on music! The band released their first single, Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants, on Bad Sneakers Records in November 2006, and it was an awesome introduction! I think a few people were a little unsure about the band based on that song, as Thorpe’s vocals are quite unusual and wild and, in terms of its lyrics and themes, it as very different to everything out there! Even though there would go on to release albums that were a bit more subtle and emotionally rich, I love the slightly untamed and eccentric nature of Limbo, Panto. Released on 16th June, 2008, many had already heard Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants, but many others were coming fresh to the band. Look down the ten tracks and the titles definitely catch your eye! Albums such as Smother (2011), and Present Tense (2014) are miles away from Wild Beasts’ debut - and the song titles are a bit more traditional and less arresting.
Starting with Vigil for a Fuddy Duddy, before going onto The Club of Fathomless Love, one definitely projects a lot of different visions before hearing a note! The opening track features some exotic and intriguing lyrics – “Room a catacomb, this ghoul a balloon, with the breath/From beneath your breast, yes that is best” -, and Thorpe’s voice swoops and flies! One of the greatest aspects of Wild Beasts is how Hayden Thorpe’s high and more acrobatic register combines with Tom Fleming’s deeper and more grounded vocal. It is a key ingredient through the album and, whilst Fleming gets more spotlight on songs such as The Devil’s Crayon, and His Grinning Skull, most of the vocals are handled by Hayden Thorpe. Wild Beasts’ lyrics have always been more poetic and inventive than most, but I think they drew more from the heart and soul on later albums - whereas there is fiction, feverish imagination and more theatre on their debut. Maybe some critics were seeking something more relatable and restrained from the boys but, as I say, most critics were positive towards the album. I can appreciate how songs aren’t played a lot on the radio as they are very distinct and still sound unabashed and unique all these years later. Limbo, Panto is only ten tracks long, so it never goes on too much and, as such, I don’t think there are any weak moments. My favourite tracks employ Thorpe’s dexterous and beguiling lead and the band’s ability to talk about something ordinary in an extraordinary manner.
Consider a drama from the football terraces, Woebegone Wanderers, and some of the lyrics employed (“Darrell, my son the bastards won/We've been lumbered with losing life for far too long/The ground groans like the belly of a sleeping whale/Don't flinch an inch he'll be released on bail”). Thorpe groans, screams and dances through this song that, on paper, is quite well-trodden and cliché but, in the band’s hands, we get tension, criminality and something akin to an opera! The same can be said on the single, Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants, which gallops along gleefully; She Purred, While I Grrred is Thorpe in full flight and, whilst the lyrics deal with matters of the heart, it is the wording and deployment that makes Wild Beasts’ music both florid and striking – “I die every day/to live every night/Under the industry of her want for me in our fusty foundry/Please no ceremony/I want she, I want she, no matrimony”. The Old Dog blends Thorpe and Fleming together and it is one of the less explosive and wild songs. Cheerio Chaps, Cheerio Goodbye closes the album in suitably gleeful and delirious style and, after ten tracks, one has witnessed so much and needs to take a breath before going back in! One minor criticism is that Tom Fleming does not get enough vocal employment and, whilst this would change later on, his vocals balance out Thorpe’s tones – which, at times, do need to be reigned in and controlled.
I remember buying Limbo, Panto when it came out in 2008 and listening to it a lot. Even though I prefer the more energetic and strange songs, I think there is a nice blend of the more subtle and calm as there is these big, dramatic numbers. The band are incredible throughout and definitely announced themselves as a proposition to watch! Some critics were taken aback by the album and how it is very unusual and full-on at times. I have a lot of love for Limbo, Panto, and it is interesting to see where the band would head on future albums (and mature). Whilst some prefer them when they are more musically experimental and less vocally bold, I think Limbo, Panto is their finest release, as it is an album that gets right in the brain from the first time you hear it and then keeps coming back! I will finish off soon, but I want to bring in a couple of reviews for the album. This is what AllMusic remarked in their review:
“When it comes to creativity, the Wild Beasts have an embarrassment of riches. The band's full-length debut, Limbo, Panto, is exotic, exciting, fascinating, and forced in equal measures. "Vigil for a Fuddy Duddy" opens the album by spotlighting the most divisive, and definitive, part of the band's music: singer/guitarist Hayden Thorpe's vocals. He careens from a warbling falsetto to a suave croon to a feral growl, sounding like a hybrid of Antony Hegarty, Tiny Tim, and Mika (with shades of Tiger Lillies howler Martyn Jacques and possibly Dame Edna to boot), not just during the course of one song, but sometimes within a single syllable.
It's an attention-getting sound, but it often crosses the line between distinctive and difficult, especially since Thorpe's fondness for wordy lyrics such as "don't render me the sorriest parody" and the Seuss-like internal rhymes and alliteration on "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants" and "Cheerio Chaps, Cheerio Goodbye" are already extremely stylized. However, Limbo, Panto is more than Thorpe's love-it-or-hate-it lightning rod of a voice. The rest of the Wild Beasts' music is relatively restrained but still far from conventional, fitting around Thorpe's vocals in more subtly unique ways. Relying mostly on a traditional guitar-bass-drums lineup (along with the occasional keyboard), the Wild Beasts evoke cabaret, vaudeville, jazz, disco, and Afro-pop, depending on their whims. "The Old Dog" could be a lost and very warped '70s pop single, while "Please Sir" fuses doo wop rhythms with chamber pop delicacy and "Woebegone Wanderers" flips from a disco strut to a carnivalesque oompah beat. Over the course of the album, the band's experiments teeter between genuinely intriguing music and just trying way too hard. "The Devil's Crayon" is excellent, with percolating guitars and lunging drums that come together in strangely graceful, romantic ways. This song and "His Grinning Skull" -- another standout that makes the lyric "I'll eat this young whelp's heart, I will" seem perfectly conversational -- feature bassist Tom Flemming's throaty vocals. "She Purred While I Grrred" is a highlight that is all Thorpe's, however; he sounds like he's in heat as he purrs and grrrs his way through the song's jungle-like carnality. These moments balance tracks like "The Club of Fathomless Love," where everything that is interesting about the band's music just sounds grating. In its own way, the Wild Beasts' volatile flamboyance is more difficult to embrace than an overtly dissonant experimental band's music, but that's just another way that this group sets itself apart from the rest of the pack -- and there's something very liberating about that, even if it's baffling at times”.
When they assessed the album, The Guardian remarked that Wild Beasts seem like a normal male Rock band on the surface but, when you listen to the music, their individuality and U.S.P. shows:
“Wild Beasts are that dread creature, the all-male guitar band, average age 21. Yet they are as like to the standard all-male guitar band as a peacock to a warthog. Limbo, Panto is an outrageously ostentatious album: think the lascivious court of Charles II, Victorian opium dens, 1930s cabaret, the Tiger Lillies' musical Shockheaded Peter and the New York club Studio 54 at its disco peak, and you'll get the flavour of their keeling theatricality. Though they sing of such laddish preoccupations as sex (Vigil for a Fuddy Duddy), booze (Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants) and footie (Woebegone Wanderers), it's in a language - musical and verbal - as fiery and kaleidoscopic as a catherine wheel. Dominating proceedings is Hayden Thorpe's sordid falsetto. He's been compared with Antony Hegarty, but he's not that graceful, and whenever the album strives for melancholy stateliness it falls flat. But for every failure there is a song of such coruscating originality, it sends you reeling”.
If you have not heard Limbo, Panto, then I would recommend people investigate it as it is a fantastic album and one that is full of life and these wonderfully strange stories. In 2008, Wild Beasts lived up to their name with this remarkable record, but they displayed a lot of heart and soulfulness too. They would, as I said, go on to develop their sound and, in a way, smooth off some of the rougher edges. Their debut remains this remarkable album from a hugely talented band. The world had not witnessed anything like it back in 2008 and, twelve years later, I still think Limbo, Panto is…
SO different and heady.