Flesh World - The Wild Animals In My Life

Article by KevW

With some bands you don't get any messing about, they prefer instead to surge through a collection of songs that they want you to hear, that will give both the performers and the listeners a real buzz, and wouldn't dream of letting either get bored. It's what made people like The Ramones such legends. The debut album from Flesh World is once such record; a sonic blast of noise and vibrancy with each song generally sitting somewhere around the two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half minute mark. Although a new band, Flesh World were actually conceived in a tiny San Franciscan bedroom studio by Scott Moore from hardcore group Limp Wrist and Jess Scott from indiepop troupe Brilliant Colors, with the line-up completed by Diane Anastasio and Andrew Luttrell. If you take the music of Limp Wrist and Brilliant Colors, then its easy to see how it perfectly met in the middle to create this scuzzy powerpop/punk album.

It's not really a surprise then, that the first sound you hear upon pressing play is a frantic burst of distorted guitar as they tear straight into the new-wavey 'To Lose Me' which has the energy of punk, lo-fi aesthetics, as well as a big pop undercurrent. The rumbling intro to 'Just To Tear Me Down' adds a little suspense, but soon electric fuzz is blaring at you again. This is offset fantastically by a jangly solo and a poppy melody of the kind that the less twee indiepop bands have been creating for years, and while it does sound as though it could be an old track, there's a definite freshness here that's largely a result of the energy and urgency, and this is something that could be said about 'The Wild Animals In My Life' as a whole. Talking of which, the title-track does exactly what it should and sums up what the band are about. It's another rush of irresistible fun.

If you had to pick a fault, it could be argued that many of the songs here are the same make and model, but that's kind of the point, and at under half an hour it never gets tired and your mind doesn't really wander. Perhaps for a follow-up some changes would need to be made, but if they can keep churning out music as good as this then bring it on. There's slight deviation on 'Poolside Boys' which drops the tempo while succeeding in keeping the spirit up, and in fact it's arguably one of the better tunes on the record. Following it with the most intense and powerful track of the set in 'Strawberry Bomber' means that it's only a brief interlude. Perhaps the biggest surprise comes in closer 'Here In The Dark', and that's not because of any style shifts, it's simply twice as long as pretty much everything else here. 'The Wild Animals In  My Life' is a frenetic ball of indie-punk joy, and while it may not break new ground, it pretty well nails it in every other aspect.





Flesh Word's website

Buy the album

Catch them live:

4th September - Brighton - Hope & Ruin

5th September - London - Oval Space
6th September - Manchester - Q Cavern
7th September - Glasgow - The Flying Duck
8th September - Nottingham - The Chameleon
9th September - Sheffield - Lughole
10th September - Norwich - Rumsey Wells
11th September - Leeds - Temple of Boom
12th September - London - New River Studios

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