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The artists formerly known as The Bad Flowers return with their debut album under the new moniker of Wolf Jaw. Sounds much heavier doesn’t it? On the left – The Bad Flowers, on the right – Wolf Jaw. No contest really. Wolf Jaw – a snarling, vicious sounding name for a band which suggests a journey on the darker side, and musically, that’s what you get on ‘The Heart Won’t Listen’.
The lighter moments on ‘Starting Gun’ (the debut album from The Bad Flowers) are nowhere to be found, instead, this is the sound of a band with fire in their bellies and a new found aggression. They always had their heavier moments (‘Lions Blood’ immediately springs to mind), but here they sound, for lack of a better phrase, pissed off. The album title, song titles like ‘Hear Me’, ‘Ticking Time Bomb’, The Fighter’, ‘Open Your Eyes’ and ‘I Lose My Mind’; this was never going to be about the lighter side of life. ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ for example – “You told me that I couldn’t fly…so I grow wings”, guitarist/vocalist Tom Leighton at his brooding best, ably backed up with a snarling, slow burning groove from drummer Karl Selickis and bassist Dale Tonks. Or the opening lines on ‘I Lose My Mind’ as another example – “I know the reason that you look in my eyes, you want to take everything that I got”. This is music born out of anguish and heartache, although it never feels that personal that the listener is intruding.
But, although there is a lot of aggression on the album (‘Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda’ could be the best thing that Royal Blood never wrote), it’s still very accessible. ‘Piece Of Me’, ‘The Fighter’ and ‘Living The Dream’ have a modern sheen to them that would surely find a home on BBC Radio One, or even BBC Radio Six, if they would only stop the smug, self congratulation that blights both stations. ‘Beast’? That’s more along the lines of Daniel P Carter’s Rock Show though. The bass lines from Tonks will rattle the fillings in your teeth loose, while Selickis shows yet again why he is regarded as one of the fast emerging drummers on the scene today. Leighton sounds reinvigorated as he vents his anger at whoever he has in his sights, his guitar playing has an edge to it, and his vocals show real growth. Wouldn’t like to be the person that he has in his sights mind you.
Available now on Listenable Records.
Review Dave
