Monday, May 7, 2012

REVIEW: French Wives - Dream of the Inbetween


Those of us that follow Scottish indie music have been hoping for a full length album from Glasgow's French Wives since they began capturing our hearts, and ears, in 2008.  Finally, via the Electric Honey label, we have Dream of the Inbetween.  And the album is just what we had hoped for.

French Wives make glorious indie pop.  The melodies please the ear and the instruments and vocals build into soaring anthems.  The songs are varied, packed with hooks, and convey an infectious sense of energy.  All five members contribute to the vocals.  And in addition to the typical drums, bass and two guitars, the band features a violin.  While their music always has been pop music, some of their earlier work contained folk elements.  But Dream of the Inbetween  is a pure indie pop album from the opening note.

Numbers, the second track on the album, is an example of the fine sounds produced by this band --


French Wives are Siobhan Anderson (violin, vocals), Chris Barclay (bass, vocals), Stuart Dougan (vocals, guitar), Scott WD Macpherson (guitar, vocals), Johnathyn Smith (drums, vocals). They all met while in college, and have only recently finished their studies.  Previously, they released a few singles and an EP.  The band was in North America this spring for SXSW and Canadian music week.

"Younger" is track nine.  It was intended to be a big track, and it succeeds --


Dream of the Inbetween was produced by Tony Doogan (who regular readers will recall also produced Hey Rosetta!'s album that drew our praise last week). It should be available at all the usual online places, including the band's Bandcamp site.  By the way, Electric Honey is the in-house label of Stow College, and released the first work from Belle& Sebastian.

"Sleep Tight" --


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