The Whitest Boy Alive: Rules
Rules, the follow up to The Whitest Boy Alive’s 2006 album Dreams sees the band turning their back on electronic dance and shifting firmly into the world of jazz dance. The Berlin four-piece have produced a pleasing second album laced with tight guitar riffs and jazz influenced organ sections.
What makes the album so pleasing is its rawness. Each individual track was recorded live with no over-dubbing or re-recording of sections giving each track a brilliantly spontaneous live feel.
In a welcome change from many styles of music in the 21st century ,something that the band thrives in is a minimalist atmosphere. All the tracks are all very much stripped back and there is never more then four instruments playing at one time. This allows for the listener to sit back and appreciate every single element of the song in their first listening. Furthermore shows how confident the band are in their material, as with so little going on they don’t feel the need to compensate for anything with over-production or multiple elements to their songs.
A majority of the albums tracks are very much up-beat laden with tight percussion and sharp guitar riffs, however songs like ‘Rollercoaster Ride’, an ironic title considering the sound, allows the band to showcase a mellower side. It’s a truly brilliant piece of song-writing that although led by a basic drum beat and an un-complicated guitar chord structure, is un-deniably catchy.
As you would expect from a band with this kid of stripped back sound the lyrics are very much at the forefront of what the band does. So its no surprise that lead singer Erlend Oye’s lyrics are spot on and incredibly articulate and in parts surprisingly melancholy. In ‘Rollercoaster Ride’ he sings “Waiting everyday for a line/ For a sign from you”, a song that questions if and why rules are put in place.
‘Intentions’ is a gloriously laid back track heavy on an off beat organ and with a rich warm guitar section. Actually the song would not seem out of place in a late night lounge bar and it’s tracks like this, that also make you question how much The Whitest Boy Alive are influenced by modern jazz. Particularly as this song could easily go on for another three minutes and off shoot into a keys section solo, something I would love to hear. The track also evokes thoughts of the Norway based band Beady Belle, a band who are doing something very similar to The Whitest Boy Alive but with a female vocalist instead.
It is nothing but a pleasure to hear such a collection of pure uncomplicated songs from a band firmly grounded in the dance genre and hopefully other bands will sit up and take notice of what they are doing. Minimalism may not work for many, but for The Whitest Boy Alive it certainly does.
Words: Kevin Angel
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