Almost three years, one lacklustre follow-up
album and an odds ‘n’ sods compilation later, the
quartet return with No Shouts, No Calls. The band’s
previous record, Axes, was a mostly instrumental and
occasionally self-indulgent affair but No Shouts, thankfully,
is a bold return to form.
The band’s wandering spirit comes across in a number
of songs here, especially lead single ‘To The East’,
driven by delicate organs, tense guitars and a bass-line swiped
straight from the Kim Deal handbook, whilst vocalist Verity
Susman sings with fragile yearning (‘The east’s
not so far away / But it could be home’).
On ‘At Sea’, Electrelane display the versatility
they are already well-known for, as delicate, plucked guitar
flows seamlessly into propulsive post-punk reminiscent of Josef
K, whilst the near-instrumental ‘Tram 21’ is simultaneously
assertive and tender. The band even finds time to show off its
punk chops on the three-minute blast of ‘After The Call’.
‘Five’, an angry six minutes of dissonance dominated
by droning organ and discordant guitar, gives way to the comparatively
poppy ‘Cut And Run’ before the piano-driven ‘The
Lighthouse’, a kind of instrumental sister to Axes’
standout, ‘Bells’, wraps the album up.
Although The Power Out and Axes
were engineered by legendary noisemaker Steve Albini, Electrelane
instead recruited Bill Skibbe and Jessica Ruffins for No
Shouts, and their sympathetic, spacey production plays
up the band’s subtle melancholia, ideal for the mood of
the songs themselves.
