REVIEW: Two Wounded Birds - Two Wounded Birds

Two Wounded Birds are a four piece combo who I have been impressed by since hearing their excellent 'Keep Dreaming Baby' single a few years ago. Hailing from the crumbling seaside town of Margate, the group have since undergone a couple of line up changes and  have continued to build on their musical promise with more great singles and plenty of well received live shows. 


The opening tracks on their self titled debut album give a pretty good indication of where their influences come from, beginning with the excellent 'Together Forever', a highly infectious summer anthem with Brian Wilson hooks, a fun Strokes-esque guitar solo and a stunning key change towards the end. The mood changes for the equally brilliant 'My Lonesome', a mysterious and captivating moment recalling the surf guitar of Link Wray, carrying super-cool melancholy and a haunting vocal, while 'We Were Young' is an upbeat yet sad swoon with plenty of 60's pop hooks. This song and the following 'It's Not Up To You' are both the sort of beautifully lovelorn tunes that bands like The Vaccines and The Drums in particular have been trying to produce, and yet Two Wounded Birds seem to pull it off with ease. 

The piano pumping fury of 'Daddy's Junk' is incredibly rollicking indeed, and proves that the band also sound great when they're bashing out such fun raucous rock n' roll, while 'I'm No Saviour' and 'If Only We Remain' are infused with exactly the sort of melancholy that descends from faded English coastal towns. The brooding 'Night Patrol' is a bit like Dick Dale covering The Cure or even The Xx played by The Cramps, and if it wouldn't make a fine addition to a Tarantino film soundtrack then the awesome surf-western instrumental 'The Last Supper' certainly would. The yearning introspection and sad seaside organ towards the end of 'No Goodbyes' leads into the dreamy 'The Outer World' before the slow building suspense of the brilliant 'Growing' closes the album wonderfully, although perhaps the record's final three tracks need a few more listens to register as much as the superb numbers which precede them. 


Two Wounded Birds look to the past for their inspiration, but the way in which all these influences are blended produces a sound that is very much their own. It is an album you will want to revisit in the future for sure, and confirms that Two Wounded Birds are one of the finest and most promising acts to have emerged in recent years. 8.3


BUY the album HERE.