Oxford Music Album Review: This Town Needs Guns

Call me a conspiracist, but I reckon it’s more than aesthetics behind that album title. 13.0.0.0.0. Day 1 in the renewed Mayan calendar (remember, the one that was supposed to spell the end of the world?). This Town Needs Guns; a band who have lost 5 members, 3 of them founders, in only 7 years, and yet have battled out to the other side triumphantly waving a beaut new album replete with beaut mayan-inspired artwork. This is a celebration album, a celebration of renewal, fresh starts, blank slates.

Yes, a possible crock of shit, and unlike JFK, TTNG are close on hand to raise the red flag. But whether or not they’re calling attention to it, this is a new band. Gone are the earnest wails and mad frantic drums; in their place are falsetto touches and jazz-tainted restraint. There are no ‘heavy bits’ anymore, just ‘louder bits’. To be honest the new sound has been very much a work in progress, and will seem a very logical progression to anyone who was a fan of the beautiful Big Scary Monsters-released Animals. If that album was building the ship, with this one, they’ve fully set sail, and if only three of em made it to the voyage, then so much the better – this is a tighter, better calibrated TTNG, a band with far less audible waste than before; In short, This Town Needs Guns have grown up.

It really is a stunning LP, executed by stunning musicians. ‘+3 Awesomeness Repels Water’ is a particularly choice cut, coming in near the end of the track and acting somewhat as a summing up of the lessons learnt throughout, a veritable crash course in harmony. The real comfort though is listening to the album as a whole – the flow is exceptional, oscillating carefully between straight polyrythmic drivers and softer drifters. It’s a feat rarely accomplished these days, and one that deserves maximum kudos.

When all’s said and done, This Town Needs Guns are an example of exactly the kind of band we need – a band with longevity and a vision, and with the will to carry that vision through. Here’s to seeing them explode, finally.

Released on 21st January 2012 by Sargent House

album review