aaamusic | On 06, Nov 2011

Londoners Fireworks Night have their third LP in 5 years –  One Winter, One Spring – coming out. Unlike those gazillions of bands who ride the folk bus and alight right at Marcus Mumford, these kids walk a little further off the banjo path. Opener Settle Down is spookily adventurous, and makes you think – although with less of the instrumental wizardry that marks this artist – of Lycanthropy-era Patrick Wolf, which is one of the most flattering comparisons I can personally think of. Here The Roses introduces some of the main themes of the record: spite, guilt, and remorse. Fireworks Night play with an endless number of influences but do so at their own terms. The title track is quite blatantly Bright Eyes, at its most engaging; musically, yes, but mostly because of the world of outcast sorcerers that is conjures up. This is another of the main backbones of the album: this wicked, gipsy-like atmosphere never leaves us. The band keeps Oberst-ing its way through this record for a bit; Across the Sea is a tale of doomed relations which sees the brass section implode on itself. The confessional moment of A Little Time In The Light echoes – whisper it- Jeff Buckley’s Mojo Pin, with those quietly disturbing guitars, and the wine-infused air. More black magic taunts God’s Luck, a chaotic, almost Gogol Bordello affair, but more spiritual and spooky than that – the backing vocals adding an almost Notre Dame feel to it. And thus One Winter One Spring keeps going, sticking our heads into an intoxicating, wicked whirl of flaming cradles, desperately out-stretched hands and terrible love.

Absolute highlight of the record is That Easy Way, a spell-binding, intimately eerie, howling curse of a song that you’re very unlikely to survive without goosebumps. With a voice that’s half Villagers, half Paolo Nutini, main vocalist James Lesslie pierces through this musical film of its own making, begging “Take your time” while he clearly means the contrary. It’s so good that the main fault I can find in this record, is that it doesn’t end with this one. Wrapper-up Only the Night serves, in fact, mostly to replicate the taste of the rest of the record, rather than adding salt to it. By no means a serious issue, anyway, and nothing that Fireworks Night haven’t already more than made up for throughout One Winter One Spring; a record that sounds more like it was summoned up in a dimly lit cabinet with glittery wands, rather than made with worldly instruments.

 

Chiara Amoretto