Bloodless coup --- Bell X1 --- 2011 (Bellyup)
Formed from the ashes of Juniper, the first band to feature a man who would later go on to solo fame and glory, one Damien Rice, Bell X1 take their name from Chuck Yeager's supersonic aircraft of the same name (though with a hyphen inserted), the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. They have become very successful in the USA, are loved in Ireland but have generally failed to crack the UK market. “Bloodless coup” is their fifth and most recent album, and just last week missed out on scooping the prestigious Meteor Choice Music Award, having been shortlisted but beaten to it by Jape.
We get underway with “Hey Anna Lena”, electronic keyboards and drum machines ushering in the sound with a lush, luxuriant feel until the vocals of Paul Noonan, who also plays guitar, drums and kazoo (?) slides in like a cool, refreshing stream, soothing and cool, soulful and elegant. A nice little understated bass line keeps the time as the song slips along on soft feet, carried mostly on the keys until Dave Geraghty's guitar makes its presence known, adding a harder, sharper layer to the song without changing it that drastically. Dramatic and urgent, it's a great opener, and it's followed by the first single to be taken from the album, “Velcro”, with an electro/dance beat and a very clear sense of Talking Heads, which has been remarked upon before, but I only really hear the David Byrne influences now.
Much more uptempo than the opener, it's a good choice for a single, with some very Gary Numan-style synth, and some nice breakout guitar from Geraghty. I'm not certain who plays the keyboards, as Geraghty is credited with “electric piano”, but whether he also plays the keyboards as well as the guitar is debatable. Anyway, whoever plays them does a great job, and they're certainly central to the music of Bell X1. “Nightwatchmen”, in contrast though, is built on a gentle acoustic guitar melody with accompanying electric guitar, a hard half-ballad with real bite, a great vocal performance by Noonan, who approaches the passion and intensity of Bono at his most intense.
The keyboards and synths are back in force for the more gentle “Sugar high”, and I hear echoes of a-ha's Morten Harkett in there. Nice solid percussion, with more very Talking Heads keyboard noises and melodies, with indeed a real flavour of the Cars, or at least Ric Ocasek in evidence too. Heavy bass introduces “Built to last”, which starts slowly and builds on a nice electric piano line and echoing percussion, then “4 minute mile” is quite funky, with slap bass and wah-wah keyboard sounds, shuffling along in quite a Prince manner --- that could be Paul Noonan's mentioned kazoo sound there. Like I said, funky!
This theme then continues on through “Safer than love”, with handclaps and bassy keys, some nice high-register melodies on the keyboards, again very Tubeway Army-like, while acoustic guitar and some banjo or mandolin merge with some really nice piano for “The trailing skirts of God”, which kicks up into a nice mid-pacer a minute or so in, and would probably make a good second single. Paul Noonan's vocal is a little more restrained here, with the lyric seeming to contain the title of the album, thereby I guess making this as close to the title track as we're going to get. It's certainly worthy of the honour, one of the standouts so far.
The oddly-named “Haloumi” reminds me of Matt Johnson, specifically around the time of “Mind bomb” or “Naked self”, with whistling keyboards and thumping bass, Noonan's voice going into a sort of falsetto here. Nice gentle guitar intro to “74 swans”, marching-style percussion cutting in but the song still stays fairly laidback, although there hasn't really been anything yet that I would point to as an actual ballad, and this is not one either. I doubt there will be one, as there is only one track left to go. It doesn't detract from the album, but still, would have been nice to have experienced.
The album closes with what is in fact the longest track on the album, at just over six and a half minutes, and is also not on every release of the album, seen as a bonus track. It's on my copy though, and just as well, as it's the ballad I've been waiting for. Beautiful blues intro as “Amsterdam says” gets underway with truly gorgeous strings (made on the synth, yes, but it doesn't make the sound any the less beautiful), an understated vocal from Noonan backed by some lovely electric piano, the strings coming back in to take the whole thing up into the clouds, kissing the roof of Heaven, then right back down to earth for a superb guitar solo. Noonan's voice gets more urgent and intense as the song winds on, the passion evident in his singing, the strings backing him and echoing his frustration and despair. The ultimate breakup song? Quite a possibility.
After having listened to this --- for the first time --- all I can say is Jape better have made one hell of an album, because how this lost out on the top prize I am at a loss to say. Also, how this kind of music is ignored by the UK market is another mystery, but hey, it's they who are losing out. The original Bell X-1 may have broken the sound barrier, but the band Bell X1 are breaking down barriers of their own, and soon there should be none left for them to surmount.
Bravo, guys.
TRACKLISTING
1. Hey Anna Lena
2. Velcro
3. Nightwatchmen
4. Sugar high
5. Built to last
6. 4 minute mile
7. Safer than love
8. The trailing skirts of God
9. Haloumi
10. 74 swans
11. Amsterdam says