Wild Beast's second album, Two Dancers, is out today in the U.S. and you should get it -- it's pretty brilliant. Mixing a variety of post punk influences with the very distinctive vocals of guitarist Hayden Thorpe and bassist Tom Flemming. Most reviews of Wild Beasts tend to focus on Thorpe, whose pipes are kind of like a less sad bastard version of Antony's. A bit of an aquired taste, but I think it's rather tempered here, at least compared to last year's debut, Limbo Panto. But all the talk of shrieking doesn't leave much time to talk about the music, which is slinky, sexy, understated and anchored by an incredible rhythm section -- seriously, the drumming here is out-of-this-world. On tracks like "All the Kings Men," "We Still Got the Taste Dancing on Our Tongues" and the title track they're almost like a new pop cabaret version of The Sound or The Chameleons. Two Dancers will definitely be on my Best of 2009 list.
MP3: Wild Beasts - All the King's Men (Buy Two Dancers from Domino
Wild Beasts are in town this week playing three shows, the first of which is tonight at Joe's Pub. They also play Mercury Lounge on Thursday (tickets) and Union Pool on Friday (no advance tickets, unfortunately). It's a busy week for shows, but you should definitely make room for Wild Beasts.
Here's the video for "All the Kings Men":
And here's a video by interpretive dancers Little Stolen Moments did for the song:
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