This Town Needs Guns - Animals (2008)

Myspace: www.myspace.com/thistownneedsguns

Naming your first full-length release ‘Animals’ might be asking for comparisons to be made with Pink Floyd’s concept album of the same name, but Oxford’s This Town Needs Guns apparently were just looking for a way to shorten their song titles.

After previous songs, released on various split singles and EPs, carried names such as ‘If I sit still maybe I’ll make it out of here’ or the awkward/adorable ‘Wanna come back to my room and listen to some Belle & Sebastian?’, the tracks on this album are named after, you guessed it, Animals. Animals of all complexions, nutrition preferences and varying degrees of cuteness.

The content of the songs, however, still revolve around broken hearts and spirits, and despair real and imagined. Singer Stuart Smith’s vocals serve this purpose perfectly. His singing is never overly emotive or even whiney, but quietly resigned yet forceful, a bit like a younger and British Ben Gibbard. “You know from the get go/It’s over” Smith concedes on “Lemur”, and on forthcoming single ‘Panda’ he denounces “Another breeding ground for apathy/To tire me into indifference”.

The band’s sound isn’t very far removed from the mathematical emo of Mike Kinsella’s American Football, with Tim Collins’ hypnotic guitar trilling and his brother Chris’ understated, but challenging drum strokes providing a counterpoint to the pillar that is Dan Adams’ bass playing. It is a lot to take in at times, and the painstaking precision of Collins’ seemingly relentless fingertapping-tangents might deflect some of the attention from the wonderfully crafted vocal melodies and arrangements. But nevertheless This Town Needs Guns have managed to produce a very organic, well-flowing album. There are two pretty non-descript instrumentals (‘Elk’ and ‘Quetzel’), but there is little to fault with the rest of the songs. Tracks like the lovely ‘Lemur’, ‘Gibbon’ or the hectic opener ‘Chinchilla’ impress with their energy and sheer emotiveness, although a ‘hit’ of ’26 is dancier than 4’-dimensions is missing.

On the whole, This Town Needs Guns showcase on ‘Animals’ how the combination of guitars, drums, bass and vocals can be used, without harmonies or overdubs, to fashion an album that is both delicate and raw. (Matthias Scherer)

Tracks:
01. Chinchilla
02. Baboon
03. Lemur
04. Badger
05. Quetzel
06. Panda
07. Elk
08. Pig
09. Gibbon
10. Dog
11. Crocodile
12. Rabbit
13. Zebra

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