Parlour
Flames – Parlour Flames
The Band: Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs (guitars,
keyboards, organs, e-bow, backing vocals), Alan ‘Vinny Peculiar’ Wilkes (lead
& backing vocals, guitars, piano), Ollie Collins (bass), Che Beresford
(drums)
So
today’s review sees the release of the eponymous debut album from the
Manchester-based 2-piece Parlour Flames (@ParlourFlames if you wish to follow
the band on Twitter). Formed primarily
of Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs (Yes him who used to play guitar in Oasis!) and singer,
song-writer, poet Alan Wilkes, who performs under the alias Vinny Peculiar, the
band this week release their 10-track debut on Cherry Red records. So let’s cut to the chase and find out what
the band and record are all about.
Parlour
Flames
1. Manchester Rain
2. Sunday Afternoon
3. Get in the Van
4. Never Heard of You
5. I’m in a Band
6. Lonely Girls & Horses
7. Jump the Brook Ruth
8. Pop Music, Football & Girls
9. Broken Hearted Existentialist
10. Too Soon the Darkness
‘Manchester
Rain’ opens the record and sets the album’s tone well with a distinctly
psychedelic guitar solo, which runs through the heart of the track before we
first hear Vinny’s gentle, softly-sung vocals on the album, with poetic-style
lyrics which are a main feature throughout the record, the chorus featuring the
line “All the fields are brown/And the
buildings are grey/In the North of England/On a winters days”. The track coasts along nicely and features
spoken-word vocals from Bonehead towards the second half it. ‘Sunday Afternoon’ follows and is a gentle,
charming laid-back song for the listener, with acoustic guitars cleverly
interspersed with soothing brass sections.
The track is quite subtle overall, with a steady blend of instruments
throughout including a nice piece on the flute, to add to the calm, carefree
nature of the track that Vinny’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics depict.
Third
track ‘Get in the Van’ initially sees a
percussion-driven track backed with swirling acoustic and electric
guitars. This is again quite another
psychedelic track with a subtle baggy Manchester feel to it, before Vinny’s
repeated, trippy lines of “Get in the
Van/Get in the Van” midway through it. ‘Never Heard of You’ is a slow, downbeat
piano ballad the main focus of which are the lyrics depicting the song’s
individual’s tale of reflecting on former glories of once being in a successful
band “Hey did I tell you I was on Top of
the Pops/I met Ruby Flipper and Sam Fox” being just one of a few poignant,
cheeky lines featured in a slow yet captivating track, melodically closing with
backing e-bow. ‘I’m in a Band’ continues
the piano lead tracks on the album at this point and is almost a ‘part-two’ to
the previous track, opening initially with slow individual piano notes played
between Vinny’s lyrics, before the track gathers a little more momentum, with a
gentle acoustic folk melody helping to build up the track accompanied with
gentle electric guitar solos and flute, it’s a very serene track.
‘Lonely
Girls & Horses’ is a bit more of an uplifting track and much like earlier
track ‘Sunday Afternoon’ shares a cheeky jolly melody again backed with brass
trumpets which really adds depth to it, while playfully closing with tinkering
piano notes. ‘Jump the Brook Ruth’ has much
more of a scuzzy guitar edge to it. It’s another track on the record with quite a
baggy feel about it, with Vinny occasionally backing with the track’s title “Jump the Brook Ruth” before the
repeated psychedelic line midway through the song “What an evil little boy”. Also listen out very carefully for rare vocals from Bonehead on this track! Next
up we have ‘Pop Music, Football and Girls’, which was actually the first
track I heard by the band. What we
have here is quite literally a delightful Indie-pop track, again with gentle
flowing guitars, understated piano notes and whimsical lines “Pop music, football and girls/Nothing else
matters in this world/Decent tunes and the beautiful game/A night on the town
with Jenny and Jane”. It’s another
track on the record that captures this cheeky yet charming side of what the
band are about.
Penultimate
track ‘Broken Hearted Existentialist’ (try saying that after a few beers!), opens
with a low-key, gentle electric guitar riff.
The track has a real spaced-out, distant vibe to it and is arguably the
most trippy track on the record with even the surreal line “Existentialist, what does that mean?” subtly thrown in there; this
track reminds me very much of the sound of The Beatles on Revolver. The album closes with ‘Too Soon the Darkness’
another calm, tranquil, understated track, lyrically poignant and quite bleak,
it appears a very personal track and comes across as such and is somewhat of a
ballad to close the album with.
So
in closing, this is a very nice debut album from Parlour Flames. If you are expecting a rocky, early-Oasis
sounding album because of the connection with Bonehead, you will be way off the
mark! What we have here are a
collection, of gentle, understated melodies with some nice Indie-pop tracks
throughout capturing a gentlemanly Englishness to the record as a whole,
especially with the cheeky tongue-in-cheek lyrics featured throughout. This is clearly an album with a lot of
thought and care poured into it and as such takes a few listens to fully
appreciate. I’m going to award this one
7 Sunday Afternoon’s out of 10, for what is essentially an easy-listening,
chilled-out record from the Manchester duo.
Pop
Music, Football and Reviews
Flynny
Track
1 ‘Manchester Rain’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE-z00w-v7M
Track
8 ‘Pop Music, Football and Girls’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdEkXqIsS3c
Band
website:
http://www.parlourflames.com/