- Left Hand is the first full-length album from Glasgow-based DIY band Vital Idles. They utilise the typical array of rock instrumentation with a raw and sensitive ear, moving in understated and minimal tidal pools across the fourteen tracks of mostly short, and tightly wound garage pop tunes. The songs are underpinned by a simple rhythmic sensibility, allowing singer Jessica Higgins’ vocals to float over the steady and intently primal pulse of the band. While straightforward and subdued, the music is not without all the animated trappings of an exceptionally expressive band. The riffing is at times reminiscent of proto-punk bands like the The Stooges crossed with the artistic punk-crossed-pop of the Dunedin sound groups, particularly groups like The Clean and My Deviant Daughter.
In a way similar to Beat Happening or Eddy Current Suppression Ring, they subvert the awkwardness of their more rock ‘n’ roll references with a sincere and deliberate sense of intent that is tied less to the a clichéd reliance on changing dynamics, builds and breakdowns. Each song is imbued with a steady slice of life atmosphere, with restraint inspiring a sense that anything is possible compositionally. This is clearly and craftily expressed in the multitude of wandering vocal hooks and winding guitar riffs that repeatedly and momentarily diverge from the unitary headnodding thumps and plods.
The interplay between the guitar and the vocals is exceptional at times, like on Now & Again, where a few notes play off each other with such powerful breadth of emotion. There’s also is a beautiful addition of organ on Cave Raised that glides under the surface of track Higgins’ repeats a few phrases and words throughout the album, like “Probably won’t anyway”, “It won’t do” – phrases familiar to anyone who has ever set foot in the realm of the arts.
Like Life and similar songs are about the will to create and see it through to the end, losing relationships, moving on, thinking but not caring versus thinking but caring. They’re positive and unifying songs about daily creative life. It’s instantly relatable to any artistic pursuit, full of that treats it with an ever-present joyful hope, that’s countered with the realism of pathos and self-doubt.
- Jaden Gallagher.