aaamusic | On 11, Aug 2013

American Garage-Rockers The Whigs latest endeavour Enjoy The Company sees the trio move into a more melodic setting with what they quote as a “newfound sense of optimism and purpose”.

Bordering on becoming more Prog than Garage, the 8 minute long opening track ‘Staying Alive’ feels more like movements of music rather than an isolated track. Kicking of with an all American shuffle, the first half showcases The Whigs newfound optimism with splashes of brass that give this opening track a stadium-like quality. Unfortunately on record this ‘epic’ idea doesn’t quite transcend as the track comes to a crashing and noisy middle-eight, using screaming guitars and non-stop drum fills creates a feeling of stress and confusion, but this is quickly resolved and dynamically comes to an eventual end.

Following on, tracks ‘Gospel’ & ‘Tiny Treasures’ are defiantly the highlights of this album. Second track ‘Gospel’ resonates with a Grunge Rock infused blend whilst still keeping that optimism feel surrounding it, the vocals and drumming, intentional or not, in particular are very uncanny to The Foos power duo Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. ‘Tiny Treasures’ follows a similar path but with a Country twist, Lap Steel parts sparsely placed during the chorus sections really help to elevate this song whilst giving The Whigs a more unique rootsy sound.

As the album reaches half way fifth track ‘After Dark’ reveals the band’s lighter side. Encompassing a much slower and softer feel the band again resonates of early Foo Fighters material, in this case the 2005 release of In Your Honour. In all the track doesn’t quite dynamically reach it’s potential but within the context of the album it is a welcomed change of pace. Disappointingly the second half doesn’t quite maintain its standards or authenticity.

Another soft track, ‘Thank You’ starts off with a Folk-Pop inspired acoustic melody coupled with stripped back instrumentation, again making a nice change of pace but ultimately something feels very forced and un-natural during the track. ‘Rock And Roll Forever’ brings the album back to a more positive place with ringing electric guitars, pounding drums and catchy melodies, that said, perhaps the song title offends more than it should but don’t be fooled in thinking this song is Rock-n-Roll in any way, unfortunately this leads to perceiving this track as a cheesy High School Rock song.

Closing track ‘Ours’ pleasantly and surprisingly shatters this tainted feeling and brings Enjoy The Company back to where it belongs musically. The beginning of the song utilizes lovely melodies and soft vocals to slowly build its way into a big Rock number similar to the opening tracks of this album. Fittingly the ending follows in a similar fashion to the opening track with an all out stadium big ending leaving fans with that optimistic feel once more.

★★★★★

Daniel Garnham