Posts Tagged ‘Ullages’

EAGULLS – ” Ullages ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 24, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Ullages

Eagulls have been one of the more interesting bands to emerge from the recent post-punk renaissance. Originally purveyors of quite spiky punk, their sound has mellowed a little over the past few years and their second album Ullages also an anagram of Eagulls marks a definite move forward from the band’s impressive self-titled debut of 2014. George Mitchell’s vocals are a little more defined, but retain their early Bob Smith quality, slightly stretched and pleading, reaching out for answers that never come, leaving only bewilderment and frustration. “Each night’s like the needle slipped, does existence have much more than this?”, “Is our future grey as the slabs on our drives?”, “Why don’t I ever stop and start to think?” – there are more questions than answers for Eagulls in the bleak world they inhabit, the desolate city scapes mirroring their inner desolation and helplessness.

If anything, there is less hope on Ullages than on their first album Eagulls, the tone is more resigned, the music less of an attack and more of a blurred soundscape. Emptiness, Eagulls

Eagulls delivered a daring follow-up that transformed George Mitchell’s vocals from echo-drenched hollers to sharp, wry observations. ‘Heads or Tails’ is an almost folky opener, while ‘Velvet’ and ‘Psalms’ sound like wandering alone into a dark alleyway, not sure whether you’ll make it out the other side.

Tony Wilson once said post-punk is about moving on from saying ‘fuck you’, to saying ‘I’m fucked’. Eagulls have encapsulated this perfectly in two albums.

Though the band describe the record as positive with a glass half-full mentality, it is a curious mind that would find positivity only in the fact that things couldn’t really get any worse. Sonically, there is a marked change, with more thoughtful backdrops framing the vocals, often slighty warped in an MBV style, though with plenty of picked notes and a clattering drum attacks straight from the Birthday Party. It’s a beautiful amalgam of all that has been good in music over the past thirty-five years, with jumping Cure basslines, plangent guitars, the occasional power chord and even some ambient flickers. There’s a very limited indies-only green vinyl edition, so get in quick, and all housed in a sleeve by cult photographer Peter Mitchell. Near enough the perfect package.

EAGULLS – ” Lemontrees “

Posted: March 10, 2016 in MUSIC
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eagulls-autumn-andel

Earlier this month, in addition to the release of new song “Lemontrees”, post-punk collective Eagulls hinted that their sophomore LP was on its way. Today, they’ve formally announced details of the follow-up to their 2014 self-titled debut. It’s titled Ullages and expected to hit shelves on May 13th through Partisan Records .

The 11-track effort was recorded in a converted church in the band’s hometown of Leeds. Mixed by Craig Silvey (Nine Inch Nails, Depeche More), it’s said to recall “the shimmering opulence of Cocteau Twins, the guitar lines of Smiths-era Johnny Marr, and the ominous gloom of Disintegration/Pornography-era The Cure,” according to an official statement.

In an interview in January, drummer Henry Ruddell discussed one of the main differences between Ullages and its predecessor: “It’s still all from George’s [Mitchell, frontman] viewpoint but whereas on the last album it was his own personal outlook, this time we tried to step away from that a bit and look outwards and how he gets on with other people. It feels like it’s more to do with relationships, not in a romantic way, but more as in your relationship with the person you might bump into on the street, or the person you work with..very brief encounters and how odd they can be.”

In advance of the full-length, Eagulls have let loose “My Life in Rewind”. Mitchell here is a yearning presence, his vocals enveloped by a cloud of muggy shoegaze guitars like a memory that’s struggling to stay alive.