Three years since their infectious first effort, Gorilla Manor, LA's Local Natives return in folk-frenzied fashion. The quartet spawned attention and praise for the self-funded debut, going on to build the studio in which the band's latest, Hummingbird, was recorded. Subsequently, their sound is fuller and refined, ripening these eleven tracks.
Youth was a prominent quality of Gorilla Manor - seething and wrought with instinctive tribal energy, it succeeded in artful, unique craftsmanship. Hummingbird, however, is more immediate, lacking the impulsive nature and edginess of its former. It's the sounds of a band maturing and further developing their identity.
"Breakers", the first single revealed in October, was an ostentatious offering; flashy high bar chords, hand claps and the wooing harmonies these guys do so damn well harbored high hopes. But it's squeezed between two delicate tracks; "Black Spot" and "Three Months" play out like low key, piano powered poetry. These moments entertain melancholy traits of a band having suffered personal loss and struggle. Clearly, it's not all fun and games in a big manor anymore.
Hummingbird shines most when lifting the listener out of these very slumps. Following "Three Months" are possibly the album's two best tunes: "Black Balloons" and "Wooly Mammoth" are open sky stanzas weighed down by sopping lyrical anchors. "Circling vultures overhead/Force your hand/Every day is life or death", is crooned by vocalist/guitarist Taylor Rice, over wavering melodies and blithely plucked strings in "Black Balloons". It's contradictory in a sense, melodically and lyrically.
There's a relentless sense of doubtful uncertainty in this record that, if not invested, can become hard to swallow. Closers "Columbia" and "Bowery" function by cycling feathery song structures through tame crescendos. The tension builds slowly, but the boys drive it home, yet again, in layering those oozing harmonies over the song's fragile physique. By the end, you almost want to pat them on the back and let them know everything will be just fine.
Where Gorilla Manor boasted confidence and liberation, Hummingbird is the backside personality, isolated and in need of healing. "Hold me down and bring me back up again/Until I can't tell the difference"; the choral lyrics to "Black Balloon" perhaps best describe the very essence of the song. Moreover, it's the principle theme ofHummingbird; a vacillating creation fueled by longing, vocal flourishing and the urge to fly with damaged wings.
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