Album review: Noah and the Whale, Heart of Nowhere (Mercury)

Noah and the Whale, Heart of Nowhere (Mercury)

Save for the Reichian waves of marimba and strings in “Intro”, the more interesting musical developments of the last couple of Noah and the Whale albums seem to have evaporated somewhere en route to Heart of Nowhere.

These songs are more uniformly reliant on chugging riffs of guitar, organ and sawing strings. Main songwriter Charlie Fink spends too much time in retrospection: when he's not reminiscing about the “dark and brooding, fickle and demure” Lisa or Jennifer in songs like “One More Night” and “Still After All These Years”, he's ruminating on the diverse paths of old friendships. Three songs feature “time” in the title, which is at least two too many; and while it's pleasantly effected for the most part, it's hard to get involved in someone else's nostalgia.

Download: Intro; Silver and Gold; Not Too Late