Album Review: Life in Film – Here it Comes
2 min read
Since crossing paths at Bournemouth University five years ago, British indie outfit Life In Film have managed to add a number of achievements to their relatively young mantelpiece. As well as releasing two EPs, winning a support slot with The Rolling Stones and hitting the road this year with The Wombats, the Hackney based four-piece were hand-picked by Christopher Bailey to contribute to Burberry’s global campaign “Burberry Acoustic”. Most recently the band has dropped its debut album Here It Comes, a solid collection of infectious pop rock gems that are enveloped by a refreshing, youthful energy.
The LP starts with the brooding opening bars of first single It’s What Happens Next That Matters Most, whose isolated, low-fi sound is taken in a markedly different direction when the full band, and its impossibly jangly guitars, makes its entrance. The track’s title alludes to positivity and hope in the face of lovelorn despair, a premise that informs much of the album. This War is unapologetically house party-danceable, offering an enthusiastic optimism that is a refreshing change from the melodrama that permeates much of this genre.
Delightful tuned percussion and a retro chorus of ‘oohs’ open the catchy ditty Get Closer, whose simple earworm hooks, blues-inspired guitars and chanting belong on the soundtrack to a quirky indie film. Here It Comes delivers the band’s quintessential infectiousness but offers a welcome departure from well-worn themes of love and loss with carpe diem sentiments in the form of a rallying, summery anthem. Most recent single Alleyway is a nostalgic, but musically jovial, ode to past lovers, awash with frenzied, butterfly-producing guitars and percussion.
Here It Comes is not all high-octane Britpop fever, however. Tracks like Anna, Please Don’t Go and beautiful closer Forest Fire prove the band is equally powerful indulging in sparse, soaring ballads. The façade of unbridled optimism drops on the forlorn Anne, Please Don’t Go, as frontman Samuel Fry, with his impressive croon, beseeches his lover not to leave over the arpeggios of a lonely guitar and lamenting strings.
Overall, Here It Comes is a confident, beautifully produced debut that shows glimmers of diversity amidst the genre’s overarching narrative of vibrancy and vivacity.
