Review Summary: And we slip the surly bonds of Earth together
The late 2000s saw a sudden boom of interest in the Scottish indie scene, with bands like Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad, and We Were Promised Jetpacks taking the world (or at least the genre) by storm. While pursuing notably distinct musical visions, what these groups shared was a sort of northern melancholy, bleak but rooted in togetherness. Falling into this category as well was There Will Be Fireworks - while not generally the biggest name overall within their cohort, they may be the best-loved on this wonderful website of sputnikmusic.com, their potent cocktail of post-rock, emo, indie rock, and folk leaving music nerds’ hearts swooning all over the place (mine included). But, in the long decade since the band’s 2013 masterpiece
The Dark, Dark Bright, the fanbase has been left waiting for the highly-anticipated follow-up, occasionally getting their hopes up from the faintest breadcrumb that There Will Be Fireworks is still together and working on new music.
As I write this, at the tail end of summer 2023, it appears this wait is nearly over, with all signs pointing to a new LP coming out sometime within the next twelve months (at the latest).The key unexpected side effect of all this on pins and needles speculation, though, was that my investigations into if and when There Will Be Fireworks’ latest work would emerge caused me to become aware of another band - Tiny Skulls.
So yeah, I wrote nearly two full paragraphs without mentioning the band I’m reviewing at all. That’s a shame, but hey, I think there’s a reasonable explanation. Tiny Skulls is a four-piece, hailing from Scotland, although (as best I can tell), currently based in London. Two of those four musicians are also members of There Will Be Fireworks, and a third also appeared on the
The Dark, Dark Bright as a guest musician. They’re also releasing this album, their debut effort, on The Imaginary Kind, a miniscule label which as of now has only ever released albums and EPs from projects with members from There Will Be Fireworks. It follows, then, that even if lead singer/songwriter Nicky McManus isn’t involved here, long-suffering fans of There Will Be Fireworks should be perking their ears up like a cat when a can of wet food gets opened.
In most respects,
Songs From Some Depressing Movie feels like a throwback to an earlier era of indie. You tend to hear a lot of albums like that these days, mostly deliberate attempts to play on listeners’ nostalgia which come up rather lifeless. Here, though, that’s not the case. Partly, that’s probably because these songs were mostly recorded way back between 2011 and 2014 (yeah, this long road to release sounds familiar, cough, cough) and partly it’s because these songs are simply well-composed and well-performed. The end result is a remarkably satisfying blend of a ton of styles, among them 2000s-era British soft indie/alt rock, low-key folk, emo, post-rock, and perhaps a hint of shoegaze.
When I first saw this album’s title, but hadn’t listened to it yet, I assumed that Tiny Skulls intended the record’s name as an easy-going half-joke at their own expense. And yeah, it kinda is that. But there’s a broader film-esque concept at work as well, not limited to the track titles like “Contrazoom” and “Scene”, but also through the general cinematic feel of the tunes. The band acknowledges in the album’s press materials that they harbor a faint hope “that one of the songs gets picked up for a film”, and it’s easy to see most of the tracks here as a fitting soundtrack to some dramatic scene, preferably as our hero or heroine walks a lonely road, away from all that they’ve ever known.
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Indeed, the themes of this album can be broadly characterized as being about navigating change - moving on from a ragged youth, perhaps one that was never all that perfect but is still dearly missed, with all the heartache and complicated feelings that transitioning to whatever “real adulthood” actually is entails. Tiny Skulls acknowledge that the record’s release now (after all this time) is a bit “odd” as the bandmates have “fairly moved on in our life” during the intervening years, but as someone now in their thirties, I can confidently say that mulling over these topics is still a plenty evergreen subject for contemplation.
And yeah, these songs are mostly
really good, with the exception of a few which are simply
pretty good. They run the gamut from glum folk tracks like opener “Brilliant Things” or centerpiece “Your Shy Heart” to the absolute anthem of emo/indie which is “Bright” to the stately and sad piano ballad “No One Ever Knows”. The album’s longest songs are the final one-two punch of “Ghosts”, a moody slow-burner with an absolutely explosive post-rock climax (there will be fireworks), and closer “Scene”, a gentle, sprawling, and absolutely grand ending. Regardless of the particular song structure at play, they are crafted well - even a tune like “The Concrete Boys (Take Heed)”, described as an “emo Beach Boys song” and featuring a bunch of lines which should land cringe-ily, somehow works well through its engaging instrumentation and rapid delivery. Oh, right, have I mentioned the lyrics? They’re really good. Tiny Skulls are prone to grand declarations such as “
I wasted my youth waiting for you” or “
the city tore its heart out long ago” like some echo of yesteryear Win Butler who happens to have a Scottish brogue. Given Arcade Fire’s deep descent into schmaltz, that probably scares the hell out of you, but don’t let it, these songs are in capable hands. In fact, by combining personal vulnerability with near-universal relatability, catchiness with substance, and a host of different styles bound together by thematic coherence,
Songs From Some Depressing Movie has emerged as my current frontrunner for album of the year. So yes, keep pining for that new There Will Be Fireworks record - I’ll be right there with you. But in the meantime, step right up for this album. It’s an absolute jam.
