REVIEW: WIVES OF FARMERS

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Unfortunately Wives of Farmers are not ruby cheeked lasses that have decided to fuck-off the farm duties to make an album – they’re not even women. Songs about breaking into houses to replace the freezer food with Roskilly’s ice cream and calling Uri Gellar a ‘spoon bender’, more than makes up for the initial disappointment. Their self-titled debut album meanders through resonating melodies to crazed speedy rants and then back again, it’s not a rollercoaster of an album, more like a faulty tea cup ride at a pikey fair, unnerving yet enjoyable. It kicks-off with the endearing sea creature story of ‘Grey Mother’, humorous yet made poignant by an unhurried, tuneful riff. ‘Seasonal B+E’ is a disturbingly funny song that expresses a pointlessly odd and weirdly troubling burglary. This saunters on to the sombre ‘Ties That Bind’; perhaps not the best the album has to offer but does possess a nice ambient feel. ‘Holly Moore’ on the other hand is a rendition presumably slating an ex girlfriend with vocals similar to Tom Waits. The track is brutally hilarious and builds to a fierce furore that makes you want to yell along: “Holly you’re a see-through bitch.” The ruthlessly energetic ‘Snake River’ jumps out of the track-list, bounding through heavy rhythm-laced instrumentals with ease and would adapt extremely well if it was released as a single. The application of PMA is told through the peppy melodies of ‘Hesitation’, where as ‘Glass Alley’ expresses the fear of somewhere “ending up like Newquay.” I guess the combination of stag dos and Cornish cyder is pretty terrifying. The upbeat and wild ‘Cutlery’ undresses Uri Gellar’s mysterious antics, executed in a mentalist style that’s typical of this debut. The hoarse mantra of ‘Get Down’ and fairy tale-esque ‘Fountain’, provides a leisurely air that develops to sign off with reassuring harmony making the album perplexingly listenable.