Shearwater's Animal Joy

The eight album by the band from Austin, Texas is the first on Sub Pop. On Animal Joy, the rich and refined instrumentation of their previous albums has made way for a predominantly back-to-basics approach.

Shearwater ••
Animal Joy rock (Sub Pop/Konkurrent)

“Breaking the Yearlings” leads the way of this more austere sound without too many frills. In “Dread Sovereign”, the balance is right: the delivery sounds frigid and yet the melody develops into an impressive climax, including vocal kick and exciting, very 1980s-sounding background singers. The band is occasionally reminiscent of Talk Talk on other songs too. Just take the solitary rolling drum and subtle vocals in “Insolence”. Unfortunately, they don’t always strike the chord between quiet and loud equally finely. The artwork with illustrations of (antique) animals, on the other hand, is among the finest we have seen this year. They give a face to the many nature metaphors (and rather hermetic lyrics) by singer Jonathan Meiburg, a qualified geographer and animal lover.

29/3, 20.00, SOLD OUT!, Botanique