Relocated from Leeds to London, Wild Beasts are in state-of-the-nation mode on Present Tense, lambasting inequality on “Wanderlust” and imagining generational revenge on “Daughters”. Cue musical bombast?
Not at all – true to the growing command they have shown over the course of four albums, the songs are subtly conceived and quietly mesmerising, their electronic tones and flowing rhythms topped by Hayden Thorpe’s fluting high voice, an art-rock echo of 1980s pop-activist Jimmy Somerville.
Wild Beasts
Present Tense
(Domino)
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