Live Review: Arliston – 6th February 2025 – St. Pancras Old Church, London, UK
3 min read
Thursday night saw London’s own Arliston take to the stage at St. Pancras Old Church for the launch of their debut album Disappointment Machine. The duo has been on a steady rise over the last eighteen months, being included on BBC Introducing and seeing major success with single Mountaineer, which has garnered over two-million streams on Spotify alone.
The evening began with Joel Stewart who started his set with a gorgeous instrumental passage, played by accompanying guitarist Jack Trouble. It led us into his wonderful baritone voice. A perfect choice for proceedings. The pair played off each other very well, both vocally and harmonically on guitar. Their set included a lovely Gillian Welsh cover, and an original called For the First Time, which was dedicated to a married couple in attendance who had asked Joel to play it at their wedding. A very wholesome affair.
When Arliston appeared, the wash of sounds that the four-piece managed to create was entrancing. Singer Jack Ratcliffe cut through the luscious piano chords and sweeping cello with his falsetto, and it was clear that the group were tight and ready to go. Admitting that he usually mumbles a bunch of lines off the top of his head, Jack showed that he had in fact brought notes containing information about each song from the new album. “Lock the doors,” he joked, the preparedness not damping his natural charm and humour. Opener What Did I Think Would Happen was followed by single Monks of Lindisfarne, a song about not being able to trust language to capture what you mean. The tune’s immediacy maintained throughout, and Jack’s voice melded well with that of the cellist.
Disappointment Machine is a ‘complaint form’, according to Jack. The title track talks of unrequited love and the way we deal with it in chemically unbalanced ways. It’s a moody song, Jack’s switches between falsetto and his natural baritone juxtaposing the self-aware lyrics – ‘give me a coat hanger; to hang all these tiny problems on’ – with the more clear-cut emotional lines. Nest powered through, as did Any Raft Will Do, both apparently written in the same afternoon and the latter featuring only one chord. That fact withstanding, it sounded angelic in the church’s ambience, the sub-bass shaking the walls while the cello brought everyone calmly back down to Earth. “Forget mindless positivity,” quoted Jack, the mantra of keyboard-led ballad Time Lost. “You will have seen a pattern by now of sad songs.” After this, however, both Vertical and Sleep Well Bean brought both an upbeat and humorous injection into the set. The former with its great guitar motif post chorus and its consistent and driving drumming proved to be a mid-set highlight, whilst the former got the crowd participating in the rather funny line ‘I was Mr. F*cking Bean’.
C.A.T.S (aka. Chased Across the Sofa) was an emotionally powerful track about feeling as though nothing has been achieved in a day, the building vocals and drums making the explosion of a guitar line incredibly satisfying. Jack’s charm never waned through the entire set, despite the heart-wrenching songs and the one moment of technical issues. “Refunds at the door if you like,” sent the whole audience into a fit of laughter, everyone too invested to see any way out as a necessity. The final album track Stay In Brixton, before the set’s final two non-album songs, lived up to its introduction as a ‘warm up’. “Releasing the album has been good, but tonight has almost been better.” A fitting conclusion for the release of an album that’s title feels almost ironic, as it’s not a disappointment at all.
Set List:
What Did I Think Would Happen
Monks of Lindisfarne
Disappointment Machine
Nests
Any Raft Will Do
Time Lost
Vertical
Sleep Well Bean
The Older I Get
C.A.T.S
Scratches
Stay In Brixton
Encore:
Mountaineer
Mothering
Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
