Wish To Scream

Whereas Tribes’ 2012 debut Baby was recorded in the heart of Liverpool’s Motor Museum, the recording of Wish To Scream saw the Camden group decamp to Los Angeles.  Unfortunately, this shift in scenery seems to have wrought a sense of dislocation upon the group’s music.  On a positive note, the songs are beefier, the production richer and more widescreen in tone, but the songwriting has become muddled, translating into a sound which feels stuck somewhere between the band’s crunchier indie-rock beginnings and a more anthemic, Springsteen-sized aesthetic.

‘Dancehall’ opens the album with a pretty piano melody and acoustic guitar accompaniment.  Musically, it’s fine, and instantly foregrounding a full, neatly balanced production tone, it’s an accessible listen.  However, from the off, the emotional beats are dispensed clumsily by Johnny Lloyd and co., with the lyrics reaching for a level of bluster which doesn’t wash.  “She’s a striptease / Real hard to please […] She’s a movie star / Fast sports car” Lloyd wails, fumbling his way through a slew of misjudged metaphors.

Such moments could be forgiven if the album’s heartbeat shone through clearly, but sadly, Wish To Scream lacks its own distinct identity to set Tribes apart from the rest of the pack.  The band struggle to amend the missed gear of ‘Dancehall’ with its more muted successor ‘Get Some Healing’, and from there on in, much of Wish To Scream fails to land a solid impact, rarely seizing the gut as it perhaps should.

That said, there are a handful of moments whereupon Tribes find their feet.  Lead single ‘How The Other Half Live’ at least has some bite to it, with its snaking riff nicely augmented with a tasteful organ bed, before Dan White unleashes a guitar solo which finally succeeds to take off.  Later down the line, the acoustic twang of ‘Looking For Shangri-La’ opens prettily, unfurling in a swirl of soft psychedelia.  Although it runs the risk of becoming cloying, it manages to charm rather than irritate, thanks to its crisp guitar motifs and a big choral finish.

Much of Wish To Scream fails to land a solid impact, rarely seizing the gut as perhaps it should.

It’s a shame that such a template doesn’t lend itself well to the album as a whole.  The milquetoast ‘Never Heard Of Graceland’ wafts by rather blandly, and while ‘Sons And Daughters’ flails for the wide-eyed thrum of Springsteen in its gutsy chorus, it fails to truly convince.  Unfortunately, the tail-end of Wish To Scream fails to pick itself up for a big finish, instead floundering in the ungainly euphoria of ‘Englishman On Sunset Boulevard’ before meandering to a close on the lethargic thump of ‘Street Dancin’’.

Tribes are certainly not a band lacking in influences, but perhaps as a result, an individual identity has not yet been forged.  Instead, songs simply come and go, without ever really evolving or progressing into anything truly engaging.  Wish To Scream is not an offensive listen (with the exception of one or two of Lloyd’s lyrical twists), but it can’t help but come off as rather flavourless, thanks to a lack of any real urgency or intrigue to its sound.  Hopefully, Tribes will be able to hone their abilities next time around, but for now, this record is far too anonymous to cut the mustard.

Similar To: Spiritualized, Oasis

MP3: ‘How The Other Half Live’