Around eight years ago, London singer-songwriter Lail Arad started releasing one-off tracks with Canadian singer JF Robitaille, once of Montreal indie outfit The Social Register (Arad’s own 2016 album The Onion is an undiscovered diamond that should be sought out).
The pair now finally release a debut album which contains a few of these singles (although not “The Photograph” and “We Got It Coming”– Spotify those two). Their literate indie guitar-pop, touched with alt-folk sensibilities, is a sprightly listen spotted with a few true jewels.
It's music built for these times. The chirpily doomed, early Dylan-esque “51/49” is especially a case in point, an album highlight containing lines such as, “Don’t believe the lies they feed you in childhood/Democracy is dying but, shoot me, I feel good”. The pair were assisted on the album by members of Canadian indie-folk underground royalty, The Burning Hell, and, in places, the music has the dynamic of that band’s lead pairing, Ariel Sharratt and Matthias Kom. This is no bad thing.
Wild Moves opens strong with the driving affirmative indie of “Swim Towards Your Troubles” and slow, fatalistic “All the Wrong Places”, emanating typically doomed lyricism (“We’ve got the language of the damaged / More riches than we can manage / The catch is not as great as the chase is / God’s grace is in all the wrong places”). The words maintain a crunchy lucklessness, their thoughtful resignation rife with longing.
The music veers between the morose folksiness of “Sweet & Low”, the country chug of “Au Clair de la Lune”, the twangy jangle of “The Waterfront” and the plaintive acoustic strumming of “Everyone You Love”. Throughout, all is imbued with a sadness, with good-naturedly facing life’s letdowns, as on the title track (“My wild moves don’t move you like they used to”) and “The Only Dream I Ever Had” (“It’s the world that’s rolling backwards like the credits in a movie”). While it’s not an album that bellows its indispensability, it will quietly offer rewards to those who spend the time.
Below: watch the visualiser for "Swim Towards Your Troubles" by JF Robitaille & Lail Arad
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