Music Review: Wild Beasts, Present Tense

By Less Lee Moore

Present Tense, the latest album from Wild Beasts, is like the feeling of holding your breath and fighting back tears while watching an emotionally distressing movie in a quiet theater. You want to give in to your emotions, but the strain has a profoundly exquisite painfulness. Present Tense is darker and more somber than the band’s previous two albums and features far less florid prose. This doesn’t mean the lyrics are any less insightful; it simply means listeners must work harder to decipher them and reveal the beauty within. There’s nothing that’s not beautiful about Present Tense, even when it paints unpleasant portraits.

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Wild Beasts, Smother

By Ann Clarke

I was quite fond of last year’s release by Wild Beasts—Two Dancers—so I was quite surprised that they had a brand new album out so quickly thereafter. So does Smother hold up to its predecessor? The short response is: Yes, it does!
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Best Of 2010: Ann Clarke

2010 was ridiculously limp regarding any newly released tangible media; I enjoyed older stuff much more. There were plenty of mediocre bands with new albums, boring reunion tours, and remakes of films . . . and I can’t even comment on books because the only ones I ever bother to read anymore are reference materials (travel, art, or kitschy humor).

However, here is some 2010 entertainment that I did enjoy!
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Wild Beasts, Two Dancers

By Ann Clarke

Its not often that I’m ever impressed with any new band. I rarely am . . . but occasionally something crosses my radar that is worth further investigation. Wild Beasts are one of those oddities that I probably would’ve overlooked due to their stupid name. However, the stupidity stops right there with their name, and after listening to them, it is ironically appropriate.
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