Glitterbug- The Wombats

I heard "Jump Into The Fog" a few years ago, and it caused me to fall in love with The Wombats. I've always had a soft spot for any band where you can hear their accent while they're singing, but something about the way that Matthew Murphy (lead vocals, guitar, and keyboard) makes each word sound so perfect that it leads me to believe I've been saying them wrong my whole life. The way the drums in each and every song make you want to get up and move. They way the guitar feels like it's going straight into your soul and making you feel things you've never felt before. I knew I was a goner the second I heard the first beautiful word that came out of the Brit's mouth. Now I'm adequately obsessed, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard that they were releasing a new album. The rest of the band consists of Tord Overland Knudsen (bass, guitar, keyboard, and backing vocals) and Daniel Haggis (drums, percussion, keyboard, and backing vocals).

Their most recent album is called Glitterbug, and it's a bit different than what they've released in the past. On their first album, "A Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation", they had a very youthful and goof sound and somewhat nonsensical lyrics; then in "This Modern Glitch" their lyrics got more serious and they had more of a rock sound to their music; and that evolution continues with "Glitterbug". While this album still has the expected drum beats, funky guitar, and synth tracks of a bygone era, it has more mature and heartfelt lyrics to go with their usual silliness.

The guitar is what really makes each one of their songs special, in my opinion. There are a lot of bands out there with the 80s inspired sound and techno beats, but none of them really have the sort of 70s funk inspired guitar with the bass playing the role of a rhythm guitar while also complimenting the drum and synth tracks. Matthew has a very unique voice and even more unique lyrics; this makes their songs unlike anything I've even heard.

"Give Me a Try" is one of the sort of demented love songs we have come to expect from The Wombats. One of my favorite lines from this song is "We could be gigantic, everything I need. Vicodin on Sunday nights. This could be worth the risk, worth the guarantee. This could be the drug that never bites, Just give me a try, just give me a try, been kind of hoping you might get up and give me a try"; I feel like this kind of embodies how he feels in the messed up "relationship" that he is talking about in the song. It really shows what he wants for them, in the most simple of term. I always love when musicians use drugs references when they're talking about love, because to me they are really similar and they both make people do things they wouldn't usually do.

I love the variety that is present on this album. Each song has a different meaning and sound, while it all still sounds like it belongs together in one beautiful collection. This album has the two things that I'm always hoping for when a band releases a new album: they sound like the same band as their last album and they are trying something new on their new album. They sound like themselves, but you can hear the changes they went through in their own life present in their music.

The Wombats' Website
Buy Glitterbug