Album: We Are Augustines, Rise Ye Sunken Ships (Oxcart)

 

Simon Price

Sunday 04 March 2012

Brooklyn trio We Are Augustines' debut album sounds like it's been pieced together with spare parts from various other big indie-rock bands.

"Chapel Song" has the fragile passion of early Arcade Fire, "Augustine" the breathy intimacy of Elbow, and "Philadelphia" the hollow bluster of The Killers. Songs typically travel from the spindly to the epic, and extol the virtues of living life to the full. It's hard to completely dislike any album which ends with a track called "The Instrumental" which isn't one.

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