It's practically a certainly that the first time you hear 'Assembly' the reaction will be WTF is that?
Whether you pose this question in excited or disgusted tones depends largely on your response to Hayden Thorpe's falsetto vocals. - a helium fuelled oddity that make Mika and Scissor Scissors pale by comparison.
A second challenge is to make sense of what he is singing about. They were formed in Cumbria and I are now based in Leeds but it's hard even to be sure if they are singing in English or not. This uncertainty is not completely resolved even when you read lyrics like:
"The worlds a whoopee wibbling wantlingly / On my crooked seat.
My tops off- I’m a goose pimpled god!/ I’ll quiver the jellies of every heavy and every bully that I might cross"
Domino Records are not usually conned into buying a pig in a poke so they merit at least the benefit of the doubt.
Still I confess that after a couple of listens I was tempted to give it just 2 stars but a few more listens softened by harsh judgment a little. Not entirely though. I'm someone who likes unusual voices but the problem with Thorpe’s is that it sounds altogether too contrived.
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The feel of Assembly, together with the slower b side (Silvia, A Melodrama), is very theatrical flavour and this tone is very evident in the video to Assembly where the band look like they are performing in a Hogarthian asylum.
There may well be method in their madness but I suspect that Wild Beasts are destined to gather dedicated admirers in inverse proportion to detractors. I have to say I fall more into the camp of the latter.
Watch the video to Assemby at: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=PgfX8BZfHhc
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