The Leisure Society - All Aboard The Ark

"A Softer Voice Takes Longer Hearing" - Wie praktisch: Nick Hemming und sein Ensemble liefern mit ihrem dritten Album (nach "The Sleeper", 2009, und "Into The Murky Water", 2011) eine Gebrauchsanweisung oder Zustandsbeschreibung in Form eines Songtitels direkt mit. "All Aboard The Ark" schließt zwischen leichtfüßigem, aber reichhaltig instrumentiertem Folkpop ("Another Sunday Psalm", "Fight For Everyone") bis zu schwermütigem Kammerpop ("The Sober Scent Of Paper", "All I Have Seen") alles ein, was Fans von The Miserable Rich bis Sons Of Noel And Adrian gefallen könnte.

The Leisure Society wurden von Kinks-Sänger Ray Davies in sein legendäres Konk-Studio eingeladen, um gemeinsam an seinen Songs zu arbeiten, und nutzten die Gelegenheit gleich für eigene Aufnahmen mit dem dortigen Vintage-Equipment. Erstmals konnten sich alle Mitglieder der Leisure Society aufgrund dieser Studiosituation in die musikalische Ausrichtung kreativ einbringen. Zudem wurden sie während ihrer größtenteils live eingespielten Aufnahmen von Dave Williamson und Nick Etwell, den Blechbläsern von Mumford & Sons, unterstützt, so dass "All Aboard The Ark" einerseits von der Gruppendynamik und der daraus resultierenden größeren stilistischen Bandbreite ("Life Is A Cabriolet" ist sicherlich eine Anspielung auf "Life Is A Cabaret" und würde wie "Forever Shall We Wait" auch auf einer solchen Bühne funktionieren), andererseits von der Live-Umsetzung im Vintage-Umfeld geprägt wird.

The Leisure Society's third album is a quintessential curate's egg, with plenty of earnest folk-rock strummage, and a few brilliant highlights distracting from several songs as weak as their punning titles, notably “Life Is a Cabriolet” and “One Man and His Fug”.

The single “Fight for Everyone” overdoes the chumminess, with chipper guitar and warm horns supporting its contention that “you just need fire and a little faith”, but elsewhere Nick Hemming's lyrical eye is more profitably applied to subjects like Sylvia Plath in “The Sober Scent of Paper”, and “A Softer Voice Takes Longer Hearing”. Best of all is “We Go Together”, a touching celebration of enduring love strongly reminiscent of the work of Pete Atkin and Clive James.

(The Independent)

'Fight For Everyone' Music Promo from Persistent Peril on Vimeo.

There's a slight widening of the musical palette at work here. Subtle electronics are employed on the skipping melodic lilt of 'Fight For Everyone', further enlivened by jaunty horns and handclaps. Elsewhere, there are rockier crunching guitars ('Tearing The Arches Down') and jazzy inflections on the curious 'Life Is A Cabriolet'.

As has become customary for The Leisure Society, Hemming's lyrics and gift for storytelling once again stand out, his wonderful couplets and warm voice helping to lift many of the weaker moments here above torpor. He is quite the wordsmith, the best evidence of this found in 'Tearing The Arches Down''s description of a mysterious elusive character, "the boy with the bloodshot eyes, a legend in your lunchtime." A glimpse at the tracklisting with song titles like 'One Man And His Fug', shows his way with a memorable line.

As it progresses, however, the lyrical erudition and quaint ebullience is dragged down as more and more instruments combine to make a grandiose, slightly overwrought crescendo. The string-filled climax of 'All I Have Seen' veers perilously close to the theatrical. Far better is the graceful, quite lovely waltz of penultimate track 'We Go Together', six minutes of sashaying beauty fully emphasising everything heart warming and good about The Leisure Society at their best.

(This is fake DIY)

The Leisure Society in Deutschland:

02.05.13 Frankfurt, Brotfabrik
03.05.13 Berlin, Lido