The Fat Angel Sings

Jungle Giants are back for their third album, “Quiet Ferocity”, and let’s just say, it’s anything but quiet.

Sam Hales and co have created a fun, jangly release that surely holds hits that will see you through to the warm summer months. Opener On Your Way Down is solid, with its catchy beats and riffs, and a chorus you just won’t be able to get out of your head. Feel The Way I Do finds some of that ferocity mentioned in the title, a tight number that you can already picture crowds bopping their head to.

Quiet Ferocity marks a change in concept for The Jungle Giants, with Hales taking to the producers chair for the first time. What results is an album that focuses on quality over quantity, choosing to build the record through their musical ability rather than a multi-layered approach that is so often hard to translate into a live environment. Tracks like People Always Say and Time And Time Again show maturity and growth in The Jungle Giants sound and it’s easy to hear that producing the works themselves has influenced their updated sound. Look out for Used To Be In Love and the eponymous Talking Heads-eque Quiet Ferocity, they’ll be with you for days.

Frontman Sam Hales has given us a track-by-track breakdown of the album, explaining the inspirations and stories behind each of Quiet Ferocity‘s 10 tracks.

‘On Your Way Down’

One of the main sonic identifiers on the album, On Your Way Down showcases the band’s ability to combine simple arrangements with melodic intensity. “It makes you want to dance, but also clench your fists,” Sam says. “When I wrote it I knew it was going on the record and everything else would have to make room for this song and nod towards it.”

On Your Way Down is one of the main sonic identifiers for me on the record. It has a simple arrangement, though melodically it’s very intense. I love how it makes you want to dance, but also clench your fists.

‘Feel The Way I Do’

Feel The Way I Do combines charging dance hooks with a contagious scream-your-lungs-out chorus. “The song came from nowhere and I wrote it start to finish. I just had to get it down. It felt like a gift.”

I’ll never forget the day I wrote this song. I always test out a song by dancing to it and when this song appeared to me out of nowhere it made me dance so hard. I saved it 19 times in different folders on my computer because I was scared I was going to lose it.

‘Bad Dream’

‘Bad Dream’ was the last song written for the record. We were having a party at my house. I hadn’t show anyone the song and then I played it over the speakers and everyone was like, ‘That should be on the record!’ And then it was.

‘Used To Be In Love’

When we first recorded this song it wasn’t even a dance song. The song was being super stubborn and I told it, ‘If you don’t want to get on the bus and go to the beach with everyone else then you can stay at home.’ But then we put a 4 x 4 dance pattern in the song and it became something else entirely.

‘Quiet Ferocity’

And then there’s Quiet Ferocity, the album’s title with its massive bass lines that lead into the nostalgic hell-yeah chorus: ‘when we get together/I forget the time’ before right-turning into 3am eyes closed where-are-my-limbs-wait-I-want-to-kiss-you territory.

I wanted huge ass repetitive bass lines that were really aesthetically pleasing. I love how this song has barely any lyrics, and how at the end it takes a complete right turn to dance town.

‘Time and Time Again’

Cesira is a guitar nerd. I realised I was writing three lead guitar lines into the song at once, and then I thought, ‘Why not!’ It’s going to be fun to play live.

‘Waiting For a Sign’

I’m really proud of this song. It formulated like a pop song but it feels like a slow burner. It’s hectic but still retains its chill. It’s got a lot of lyrics and that’s something I don’t often do.

‘Blinded’

Blinded is our Madonna moment. In the studio we were playing with the production elements trying to improve it and then we said, ‘Fuck it. Lets go Madonna.’ When I showed it to Mum she said it sound like ABBA and I was like, ‘Yes, this is what’s happening.’

‘In The Garage’

I really like how people include instrumentals in their records and I wanted to do that too. It’s great being in a different mindset. You don’t have to follow the normal rules you use to make a song. I’m into this song because it shows off all the sounds that are relevant to the album.

‘People Always Say’

People Always Say, Sam says, “Initially, the song wasn’t even going to make the album.” He’d tried so hard he’d over produced it, but the band agreed there was something about it they liked. In the studio, they worked together and simplified it but something was still missing. So Sam pulled out a synth and began hitting different keys. Cesira and Keelan and Dooris would yell, “Yes!” and then “No!” They worked together until they were all screaming, “Yes!” and they knew they’d found the sound. It was a happy accident,” Sam says. “But we had a lot of those, working together. It was awesome and validating, all of us being there in the studio on the same level. It’s the deepest dance-driven song on the record and that’s why we put it last. It felt like a full stop, like we’d built people up to the point where all we could do was say goodbye, until next time.”

‘People Always Say’ is the deepest dance-driven song on the record and that’s why we put it last. It felt like a full stop, like we’d built people up to the point where all we could do was say goodbye, until next time.

Quiet Ferocity is a brilliant reflection of everything the band have released so far, but most of all, it showcases their evolution. Through combining elements of their earlier releases, the four-piece have really started to carve out their sound, with lead vocalist, guitarist and writer Sam Hales producing some of his best work to date with the help of band mates, Cesira Aitken, Andrew Dooris and Keelan Bijker.