Noah And The Whale: ‘Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down’

‘If love is just a game, how come that it’s no fun?’, asks Noah And The Whale’s perennially unlucky in love Charlie Fink on ‘2 Atoms In A Molecule’, an assessment that pretty much sets out the stall for the folk collective’s debut.

Indeed, Fink’s is a world in which his fragile heart has been wrenched out and torn apart so often that the mere threat of another ill-fated amorous excursion might just finish him off. Yet despite repeated proclamations on the inherent rottenness of l’amour, our hapless Lothario is seemingly incapable of encountering a member of the opposite sex without embarking on an unreciprocated flight of fancy, declaring undying love to everyone from his childhood sweetheart to a woman encountered in an internet chatroom. Even 'Five Years Time'’s infectiously jaunty tale of a loved-up trip to the zoo is soon revealed to be a product of the singers’ affection-starved imagination.

However, far from being a work of self-pitying delusion, the record is shot through with a charming sense of romantic idealism and timid optimism, helped in no small way by sprightly inventive arrangements – a collier band brass here, some plucked harp there – that at times recall both Beirut ('Shape Of My Heart') and a less bombastic Arcade Fire ('Give A Little Love'). Even Fink’s oddly deadpan delivery - despite occasionally sounding like he’s struggling to shake off a particularly stubborn cold - has an engaging, melancholy quality to it.

Although 'Peaceful...' lacks the nuance and dexterity to truly connect emotionally on the level of, say, Bon Iver’s 'For Emma, Forever Ago', it’s a captivating and occasionally enchanting record that ultimately leaves the listener more comforted than despondent in regard to matters of the heart. As Fink summarises: ‘most of the time it’s misery, but there’s some joy at the start, and for that I’d say it’s worth it’.

Released on 11th August 2008 by Young And Lost Club.

Written by Christopher Catchpole.