Though it's hardly liable to smash a ruthless path to major crossover success, Kansas duo THE BELLES' debut album "Omerta" has been snuggling up inside the hearts of the wholly discerning in the few months since it quietly hitched a lift into the world. Vulnerable, fragile, sleepy and extremely wise, it remains a low-key gem that its' main creators Christopher Tolle (vocals/ guitars/songs) and drummer Jake Cardwell are rightly proud of. It's even attracted a few high-profile fans such as Coldplay producer Ken Nelson, who remixed gorgeous previous single "Never Said Anything."
"Omerta" - the single - is every bit as good on its' lonesome. Translated as "code of silence" from Mafia lore, it's delicious, unpretentious, semi-acoustic fare that reveals itself somewhere between Neil Young (circa "Zuma"), late period Replacements and Steely Dan. It sounds like a re-recording from the album - I don't remember the snaky, burrowing bassline, congas and the newly-sympathetic organ coda near the end - but whatever, it swings by like summer's final breeze and is just the epitome of unadorned loveliness.
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Flipside "A Thousand Ships" is also from the album, but requires revisiting too. This one's even more introverted, with nattily picked acoustics and a muffled warmth akin to REM'S "Reckoning". "Yours was the kiss that launched a thousand ships" snuffles Chris sadly as the song wallows in a dog-eared glory whose only crime is to fade away too soon.
The Belles will be hitting UK and Irish shores shortly after you read this. You reviewer will be seeing them, and if you have any truck with such deliciously emotional songs done the old-fashioned way (and you should have if you've got any soul) then you will too. The Belles will never prostrate themselves all over the headlines, but they're a quiet, consistent treasure and a timely reminder why you fell in love with all this in the first place. What else do you really need?
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