Staff Reviews

Guillemots - Walk the River

Review by David Edwards

The greatest frustration with Walk the River is that in the moments when everything does clicks into place, Guillemots still sound glorious.»

User reviews

• 7/10 by Guigss
• 10/10 by zereuz

Buy now from:

guillemots, the four-piece of fyfe dangerfield, magro, aristazabal hawkes and greig stewart, have delivered an album that's as innovative as it is classic - an astral triumph. 'walk the river' is filled with drama and contrasts - creating its own universe which seems both familiar and unexpected. echoes of roy orbison in a multitracked choir ('tigers') and psychedelic hints of the righteous brothers ('sometimes i remember wrong'), line up alongside the spiky energised pop of 'ice room' and the freewheeling chaos of 'the basket', the first single to be taken from the album.
the subsonic pulse and energy of 'i must be a lover' joins 'dancing in the devil's shoes', which builds from an aching, fragile lullaby into a majestic anthem. standout track 'vermillion' opens with lo-fi home-recorded acoustic strumming, but soon morphs into a throbbing, interstellar slice of fleetwood mac-inspired genius, laying the groundwork for the uplifting but heartbreaking 'i don't feel amazing now'. all the twists and turns of distortion, leaps of imagination and boundless rhythms are shepherded by fyfe's intense and intimate vocals, and the sheer quality of the melodies and performances.
descriptiuon from www.roughtrade.com