- The Orielles hail from Halifax, Yorkshire and captured the ears of this reviewer with their debut album from 2018, Silver Dollar Moment. This record showed the band’s gift for charismatic indie pop that adeptly combined C86-esque jangle, serrated choppy riffs a la The Fall and a strikingly percussive element that had parallels with post-punk funk outfits like A Certain Ratio.
It was a sharp, sophisticated twist on the indie guitar realm that the group expands on their new long player Disco Volador. Right away, it’s apparent that the arrangements are more elaborate and ambitious than on the prior album.
The record opens with the excellent Come Down On Jupiter, which starts out with a noir-ish jazz feel before the pace picks up for a heady rush of a chorus that has a touch of Lush about it. Even with the busier arrangements on the record, The Orielles keep a cool head throughout, largely thanks to the melodic, unfussy vocals of bassist/singer Esmé Dee Hand-Halford who recalls other tuneful, non-showy vocalists such as Lush’s Miki Berenyi or St Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell.
You’ll find quite a few reference points in the album, but the way the band puts it all together gives the record its own identity. There are plenty of squelchy synths and polyrhythms which recall Stereolab, and the guitars and bass, while slicker than before, still have that slightly scratchy post-punk throb.
There’s a relaxed sax break in Memoirs Of Miso that would find favour with modern yacht rockers like Mac DeMarco. The dream pop haze of Whilst The Flowers Look provides one of the mellower, dreamier moments on the album, but there are giddy, fun pop moments to be found as well – there’s the call-and-response groove pop of Bobbi’s Second World and, best of all, Space Samba (Disco Volador Theme) which is a swishy, cowbell disco moment that would sound just fine alongside Blondie’s Heart Of Glass.
Overall, the album isn’t as catchy as their earlier work on first listen – with more ambitious arrangements come more ambitious song structures – but for those who loved the hooks on the first album will find they reveal themselves again this time over, they just play a little harder to get in a fun, adventurous way.
- Matt Thrower.