I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing We Were Promised Jetpacks single, Quiet Little Voices, as well as seeing them live supporting stablemates Frightened Rabbit. Now their debut album These Four Walls is out today, available for the princely sum of £5 from 7digital.  I know times are hard and all, but you can afford to splash out a measly fiver, can’t you? Let me tell you now, it will be money well spent.

We Were Promised Jetpacks, with their average age of only 21, are the next amazing band to be on FatCat Records books, and they deserve to be in such company as Sigur Rós, Vashti Bunyan and the countless other high quality bands kept under their beady eyes. But WWPJ are a force unto themselves, an amalgamation of everything that’s been good in music in their years since birth, and before. For some bands the first album is a feeler, an indication of what could come in the future. WWPJ must have stolen a Delorean at some point and travelled to the future and back again, nabbing all their best songs on the way. It’s incredibly hard not to sound like a complete fanboy, but they really are that good. 

Opening song 'It’s Thunder & It’s Lightning' oozes with atmosphere from the opening chords and just envelops you. It builds slowly, steadily, gaining confidence with every bruised word, every thwack on drums, every ding on the xylophone, until it explodes quite grandly, and in a manner that leaves you wondering, ‘how old are they again?!’ As far as opening album tracks go, it’s right up there. 'Ships With Holes Will Sink' harks back to first album Bloc Party, heavy on the guitars and percussion. It might not be as cool or flashy, but it’s more poignant, more deliberate. 'Roll Up Your Sleeves' has the quiet/loud effect to perfection, and the pacing of it is sublime. Just as you think it will come to a crashing end, it cools right down, ends peacefully and appreciation is mandatory

Touring with Frightened Rabbit sounds like it’s had an effect on WWPJ, especially with the opening of 'Conductor' giving a nod that way. It’s a gentle, delicate song that occasionally threatens to explode, but never has to. Sometimes in football the best pass isn’t the 50 yard raker, it’s the simple, easy ball, which might not draw ooh’s and ahh’s, but keeps the momentum going, and that’s exactly what this song does. It’s spectacular in it’s own way still, but it just allows other songs to shine brighter. Similarly with 'A Half-Built House', instrumental other than a female robotic voice, that starts with harp-like chords that soon darken with feedback, while the voice continues to read numbers that might as well be missile firing codes. 'This Is My House, This Is My Home' builds to a shot of adrenaline straight to the brain, to wake you up and prepare you for the sheer brilliance that is 'Quiet Little Voices', which could well be a song of the year. Buy it, download it legally or otherwise, just try and listen to it.  

How can you follow that? Why, with 'Moving Clocks Run Slow' of course. It could be the age old tale of eyes meeting across a crowded dancefloor getting a much needed tweaking, or it could be something completely different, but it’s quite refreshing, and it achieves this without any references to Tropical Reef and Smirnoff Ice. Spot the link if you can. 'Short Bursts' has some frantic, almost tribal drums that deserve a mention, and the rest of the song isn’t bad either. When their songs reach their crescendo, as evident in this song, they can be remarkable, and leave you desperate for more. Couple that with the patient beauty shown in 'Keeping Warm', and it’s the formula that alchemists have searched for all these years. It’s over 8 minutes long, but you could listen to it forever. I’ve already mentioned it, but the way they pace their songs is spot on, and worth saying again. Old heads on young shoulders indeed. And final song 'An Almighty Thud' displays their story-telling ability, just to show that they have all the bases covered.

What we have here is a sleeper contender for one of the albums of the year. It’s a collection of songs with scope, an almost cinematic vision, played with pride and dignity. There aren’t songs for TV adverts or for the opening scene of Hollyoaks, but for the inner soundtrack of our lives, for our hopes and fears, our darkest and lightest moments. It’s a really, really good album, and if this is the feeler for them, I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Posted In Album Reviews, Jun 15 2009. Words - Paul