Yet another Canadian band appear on the Plus One horizon, this time it’s Ought, a post-punk, post-rock quartet of interlopers whose paths happened to meet in a communal rehearsal space in Montreal. After gelling, they signed to local indie label Constellation, the band’s first two records creating approving murmurs in all the right places, yet the 9-track ‘Room inside the World’ finds Tim Darcy (voice, guitars) Matt May (keys) Ben Sideworthy (bass) and Tim Keen (drums) heading south of the border to Merge Records, recording sessions taking place in Brooklyn. With Gallic producer Nicolas Verne (The War on Drugs) installed at the controls, the Big Apple setting clearly helped shape the post-industrial dystopian indie sound, with bags of introspection thrown in for good measure.
Stylish and fiendishly catchy lead single ‘These 3 Things’ mines a rich vein of influences from this side of the Atlantic, plucking snippets of TalkTalk Hammond, urgent Duran high-hat, and taut Cure bass, Darcy’s languid yet haughtily yearning vocal leaving the listener wondering whether he’s going to start yawning or about to burst into tears.
Album centrepiece is arguably the existential themed ‘Desire’ beefed up with appropriate sprinkles of electronica whilst enlisting the assistance of a 70-piece choir, tapping into the current ‘We’re all going to hell in a handcart’ malaise, similarly echoed in the refreshingly dissonant Strokes-y cool of ‘Disgraced in America’. There’s no let up, the burlesque ‘Pieces Wasted’ together with the distressingly bleak get-me-out-of-here-vibe of ‘Alice’ concluding proceedings with a caterwauling descent into madness.
This terrific new material should no doubt give the band plenty of opportunity to mix things up when performing live, and when they hit Europe at the end of April including an appearance at Leeds' Brudenell on 21st, Ought will most definitely be razor sharp, having prodded, pushed and pulled their sprawling new compositions over the course of a couple of dozen North American dates beforehand, giving each real opportunity to breathe, like a nicely aged red.
Another spring date to look forward to. .
Words - Mike Price
Ought facebook
ROOM INSIDE THE WORLD, OUT FEB 16th ON MERGE RECORDS
UK/EU tour dates:
Apr 20 | Bristol, UK – The Exchange
Apr 21 | Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
Apr 22 | Glasgow, UK – Stereo
Apr 23 | Birmingham, UK – Hare & Hounds
Apr 24 | London, UK – Garage
Apr 26 | Paris, FR – Maroquinerie
Apr 27 | Nantes, FR – Stereolux
Apr 28 | Bordeaux, FR – Iboat
Apr 30 | Lausanne, CH – Le Romandie
May 01 | Winterthur, CH – Albani
May 02 | Brussels, BE – Botanique
May 03 | Cologne, DE – Bumann & Sohn
May 04 | Berlin, DE – Kantine am Berghain
May 05 | Copenhagen, DK – Loppen
May 07 | Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso Noord
