The First Days of Spring
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Artist: Noah And The Whale List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £3.99 You Save: £13.00 (77%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Release Date: 31 August 2009 Record Label: Mercury Records Rating:   Sales Rank: 275 | | Look for similar items by category:
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| | Customer Reviews: Awesome (29 March 2010)I don`t remember exactly how I met the band, but I could never forgot... They`re just lovely and the songs, exciting. The movie is one of the most beautiful things I`ve already seen. Art work. growing on me (27 March 2010)Well I've given this one some time before I've written a review. I have to admit on the first few listens this didn't grab me at all and there is still one fault with it that doesn't diminish but more of that in a while. I guess it also seems quite a good time to revisit this now that Laura Marling's excellent second album has been released. That event (at least for the rest of us if not Charlie Fink) presumably brings closure to the theme of The First Days of Spring (unless there's more to come in the Fink/Marling/Mumford nu-folk soap opera?). Many albums have of course been constructed with a running narrative in the past though none can surely be more 'in your face' obvious than this one. It certainly doesn't bother too much with metaphor. Tell it as it is Charlie Fink! The lyrics are very personal though nowhere near as intimate as the comparably themed 'Boatman's Call' by Nick Cave (nor sadly as good as that album). The songs are aimed directly at Laura Marling and sometimes they're just a bit too desperate for my liking but there's no doubting the sincerity of this and after all that's what really matters when it boils down to it. I do feel though that sometimes listening to this is like intruding on someone's personal grief, like stumbling into a room to find yourself alone whilst two lovers argue. An argument to which you cannot of course have feelings for on either side. Then again, who of us hasn't been in love? Who of us hasn't had their love shattered? So the lyrics whilst of course utterly personal do speak beyond Fink and Marling's affair. Musically though, this is good and the lyrics whilst highly personal are excellent. Overall this is a very good album but... The thing that I just can't love about this. The 'orchestral' diversion we get half way through... I'm sorry but I just don't get this. What might have been a good idea just hasn't worked in the execution. It ain't Mozart is it.... Or anything that good really. It sounds rather camp to me somehow. I think I see what he was aiming for but what's come out of this is like 'Appalachian Spring' redone by Lloyd-Webber. Not good! There's a return to the choir later on which also fails to move me. Ah well, but the rest of the album is very good, no doubting that. I'd recommend. (8/10) The first days of spring (08 February 2010)A perfect Album. Melancholy and thought provoking but with a wonderful blend of orchestral instruments. Listening to 'The First Days of Spring' is like taking a journey through a broken heart and coming out the other side. As a whole album it works perfectly but each song has plenty of merit on its own. If you like anything Noah and the Whale have ever done you will like this album. Difficult second album? No, great second album! (29 December 2009)Noah and the Whale's first CD was bright and breezy on the whole, slightly fey, slightly twee in places, cheerfully twangy enough to garner something of a novelty cross-over pop-pap audience, propelled by the catchy "5 Years Time". Those pop-pickers who rushed out to buy album number two on the strength of the above must have been somewhat perplexed by what they heard. Suddenly, no twee, no bouncy, but lots of darkness, of self-contemplation, and slow paced, lushly arranged songs that eschew the radio friendly hook in favour of slow building themes contributing to a truly substantial whole. In short, Charlie Fink broke up with his girl, and he really didn't take it well. As a result he seems to have sunk into a bottomless well of self-pity, wallowing like a hippo in a particularly gloopy mud pool (sorry, metaphor mixing going on there!). In a while - if it hasn't happened already - he'll quite possibly wake up one morning and realise that actually he wasn't that bothered. But in the meantime, as is so often the case for songwriters, an extended wimpering session has led to a work of painful and aching brilliance. Happy folks rarely produce music this good unfortunately. For me, this collection of songs is simply brilliant, perilously close to genius. It has to be listened to as whole - individual songs don't necessarily leap out and grab you - and has to be properly listened to: aural wallpaper it is not. Noah and the Whale have grabbed the artistic opportunity afforded by the success of their first immature stab at fame and have built something of a masterpiece. Interestingly, they seem to have moved closer to the more introspective, far more intelligent ground occupied by their genre relatives Mumford and Sons. There is a similar depth of thought and design, a fine tuning of arrangements, swelling towards conclusions that feel like they matter. Many tracks stand out, but "Slow Glass" is working particularly well for me at the moment, as is the stately (and very brave!) opening title track. I've heard some great albums this year: Jon Boden's transcendant "Songs from the Floodplain", the Mumford's towering, awe-inspiring "Sigh No More", The Low Anthem's "Charlie Darwin", and now this. A fabulous year for great, long-lasting song collections that I know I will be listening to for years to come. I can't remember the last time I collected four "lifetime albums" in one year. Highly recommended, touching and honest, "The First Days of Spring" should be listened to and absorbed with care and patience. Brilliant. Wonderfully beautiful. (29 December 2009)I recieved this album as a Christmas present and after listening to it I was honestly speachless. Every single song on this album is beautiful, made to absoloute perfection. It was just the most wonderful combination of sadness and joy, with beautiful lyrics and breath taking music, so gentle and delicate. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is thinking of buying it. I will guarantee you will be left speachless after hearing it. It has just the right balance of calm and sadness without making it dreary. Five stars all the way. |
