Two Dancers

New to me and I really enjoyed it.

Are there more annoying voices out there... yes... but not many!

No lo conocia y muy indie sleaze, muy fresquito. Si lo hubiera conocido antes seguramente diria que es de mis discos favoritos.

The opening track has a bass line and production sound that could serve as the intro for 1001 tracks of recent times. It had me thinking about music being written by AI. Not that this album will have been AI written, just that it's exactly the sort of sound I imagine AI could produce. The album proceeded without much of a reason to distract me from this- standard stuff with only the vocals sometimes sounding slightly distinctive. Overall, just dull.

Nice pleasant easy listening music.

Just nice to have a break from the incessant 60's rock and 90's britpop

Instrumentals kinda bang... vocals not so much

Oooh, new music and a new favorite!!

nwm nuda w chuj moze troche eksperymentalne ale idk takie

first note tells me this album was not made for me, unfortunately (i'm too impatient) strong lyrics though ooh very odd (good) i might have been wrong, this is for me (in different mental state) good closer

I enjoyed this. I think it fits autumn well, and is something I'd revisit.

Čia toks labiau meninis kūrinys, negaliu patikėti, kad vėl atradau tą dainą hootin and howling

This feels really close to something I like but doesn't quite land. I really like the super layered music production style. The synth, loopy, rhythmic style feels really well done and is my vibe, but the theatrical falsetto voice just doesn't work for me. I tried listening to this twice to see if with a second go around I was less jarred by it, but wasn't the case. I really appreciate having heard it and love how different and creative it is compared to alot of music on this list, but I don't think I'll add this one into the rotation.

I am usually all for a unique singing style, but this immediately got on my nerves and became tedious very, very quickly. It didn't help that each song was rather repetitive and similar sounding. The instrumental side of things is fine, but really nothing stood out. Definitely won’t be returning to this one.

Pretty good, though a bit too samey and derivative throughout, but at least I can get behind the album's general atmosphere and sound. It felt both cozy and very cold, drawing on the darkest, most melancholic sounds of post-rock and the vast emptiness of ambient music. It's a cool atmosphere; it feels like being lost in some giant snowfield in the middle of the night. Pretty much most, if not all, of these songs have a similar sonic palette: arpeggiated and distorted lead guitar over these airy pads in the background. Again, pretty standard, but I did enjoy the vocals, more the deeper delivery on later tracks of the album like 'Two Dancers', but the odd and almost operatic falsetto on many of the cuts here also had its charm. So yeah, pretty neat. Again, not an album I'd deem essential for this list, but I think I'm becoming a broken record saying that over and over again. I think I'm fine with just another decent album.

Fav song: Hooting & Howling

I would have enjoyed this much more as a set of instrumentals. The singer wants to be Jimmy Somerville or Thom Yorke, or even Alison Moyet, but doesn't have the chops to pull it off. That takes a 4 star set of tracks down to 2 stars.

Mercury Music Prize nominee? We all know what that means.

This is very much like music I already listen to. It's a strange album and a strange inclusion but I appreciate it! Underbelly was such a lovely track.

Like most Mercury Music Prize nominees, I’d never heard of the band or the album, but this was surprisingly enjoyable. I like a bit of weirdness, and at least the lyrics were audible. I gave it three listens and by the third the androgynous, theatrical falsetto was starting to grate a little. Overall, a decent enough album, if not one I’m likely to add to a playlist. And, like most Mercury Music Prize nominees, I’ve never heard of them since. “This is a booty call. My boot up your arsehole.” Fair enough.

I’m really liking the instrumentals and overall vibes of the track so far, lots of mellow electric guitar and I like the singers voice, it’s almost operatic. The lyrics tho…they almost all are about girls and fucking. This kinda feels like the album a 15th century British rake would make lyrics wise. Ooh there’s also another guy singing now and he’s also pretty good. Yeah tbh I really enjoyed that lol if it weren’t for some of the weird ass lyrics I would like it sooo much better tho. The vibes were pretty immaculate tho so I’m gonna give it a 4.112/5

First few chords were great then it went all downhill at an alarming rate. 2/5 14/10/26

I found this album quite interesting. Like a softer Franz Ferdinand in terms of arch irony and occasionally interesting character pieces, but a little more abstract than FF are. Maybe more like Sons and Daughters in that regard. Not quite as musically vigourous as either band though, who have both got an ability to go harder than this album demonstrates. Musically, I like Two Dancers a good amount. It has an atmosphere and soundscape which feels cinematic and cerebral, but I suspect a listeners' enjoyment of this album will come down to how much they vibe with the soundscape, because they don't really have a second gear to shift to on this project. I find their allusions to different freaks, weirdos and arseholes of UK culture interesting. As with a lot of this style of post punk art rock I sometimes find myself wishing they were a bit more direct. The music plays each story a bit like an epic, which really works in ironically showing up the womanizing mysoginist of All the King's Men, or the looter and troublemaker of Hooting & Howling, the lads out clubbing of This Is Our Lot, or the really dark story of abuse and exploitation on the double title track. On a couple of tracks though I sort of wish they would either take a step further to let us know a bit more about where they stand in the absurdity of 2000s UK pop culture and politics, like with The Fun Powder Plot, which tells a really amusing story about the gonzo fathers rights group who used to climb buildings dressed as superheroes Fathers 4 Justice, but doesn't ultimately tell us much about them or how Wild Beasts want us to feel about them beyond bemusement This is a minor criticism though. I did enjoy this album a good amount. Most of the songs work really well for my tastes, and I like the conceit of the album. Indieheads and art rockers should get a kick out of this album

It was ok. Listenable but I didn't love it.

3 outta 5. Didn't hate it but not enough to make me go back. Highlight was the last song. Started a new genre in my mind "float rock" which these fit into

Not bad music but the vocals are a bit whiney and it just drags on

They want to be Radiohead, they are not.

This might be partly influenced by george Michael yesterday, but this is great!

Solid, etherial

Very pleasantly surprised, enjoyed this a lot

A bit too much wailing for my liking

I wouldn't dance to this

This book’s 21st-century picks are not great overall, and this is a perfect example of the problem. Another Mercury Prize nominee, no doubt picked by a friend of the band. Whiny, pseudo-falsetto vocals and abstract lyrics, backed by interesting, melodic, yet occasionally ugly guitar lines. “When I’m Sleepy...” nicely blends its eerie guitar lines with distortion. However, the vocals are extremely annoying, and they make the Bee Gees sound like the manliest band ever. These songs don’t really go anywhere beyond setting a mood, so I guess it works as background music. Personally, I could name hundreds of indie rock albums that deserve a spot on this list over this one. Slick production and interesting instrumentation, but awful vocals and arrangements that go nowhere. It’s art rock for people who decorate their homes with jungle prints, drink Moët & Chandon, go to postmodern art galleries, and think that makes them cultured. Maybe I’m being unfair? Perhaps. But it’s outrageous that this survived into the latest edition of the book while plenty of great early-2000s bands were cut. This book needs an overhaul, maybe with a younger editor more in touch with the past 26 years of music. 2 stars because the playing is decent. The rest? Blech!

This one is super 2000s coded and really weird. But it's right up my alley and slaps!

I f-ing love the beats in this album and... I WISH IT WOULD HAVE STAYED FUCKING INSTRUMENTAL. When the singer sung low notes, it was okay, it was all good. BUT 80% OF THE TIME IT WAS OFF-KEY FALSETTOS THAT MADE MY EARS BLEED. The beats cannot save the whole album bro. When I'm sleepy had an okay hook so that's the highlight if you can call it that. (I would call the one song that as okay) 3/10 (cuz the beats are fire)

I certainly listened to the album that followed this, Smother, when it came out. This reads to me as a very late-2000s indie album, one of several ascendant indie rock acts from that era that never fully took off and whose presence on this list has a conspicuous sort of melancholy for the career that might have been… what’s here is so promising and interesting but it just doesn’t have much innate strength in retrospect.

Wild Beasts is not for me. Usually the 2000s indie rock/pop is something I enjoy. Vocals tend to make a difference. These are some of the most unpleasant vocals I’ve heard.

Bonne découverte

3,5 stars

There's a lot of subtlety and variety in here. But I wasn't feeling it all the time. So...?

Every song blended into the next

interesting

Did pretty much nothing for me.

Reminiscent of Everything Everything, but without a couple of stand out songs to make me want to listen again unfortunately.

It's very clear that this band's vocals are designed to be their huge selling point, and while I do think the vocals are neat, I think this album is made much better by treating the vocals like an extra instrument rather than words to focus on, kind of like a Cocteau Twins or Sigur Rós album. Going into it with that kind of idea really brings out the atmosphere going on in the instrumentals and just how minimal everything is here. It's a great album instrumentally, but I feel like the album being so lyrically empty is the reason why my mind immediately turns the vocals into an effect rather than a voice to follow. I'd still say the album is pretty good, and I'm honestly willing to bet the vocals taking a simultaneously background and foreground role is the point of the album.

Like others have said, nice music, but the voice is too much. 3/5 Bojangles.

Just plain late 2000's indie. English variant this time and its noticeable. Medium take, there are better albums in this genre available but if I had to listen to this one at a early age I'm sure i wouldn't upset.

Sometimes I listen and love an album, knowing that others will hate it..and that's ok. This album ticks so many boxes for me personally...distinctive voice, hooks everywhere, prominent guitars, wandering drums, very english references and yet I understand that might be the antithesis of great music for others. Vive la différence mes amis

I had this on CD when it came out, purely based off how much I loved All The Kings Men. My memory of this was that it had one highlight and everything else merged together, but a decade and a half on I realise it’s so much better than that! I assume I mustve just listened to one song as I can only remember the one and dont recognise many more. I can get why his voice may grate at times, but I think it works well. And this came out towards the tail end of ‘lad rock’ and the beginning of that more polished radio friendly indie pop, and this stands out a hell of a lot in that crowd. I kinda put them in a similar bracket to maybe The Antlers or Grizzly Bear. That sort of indie sound that is simple and complex at the same time. Great stuff. So much better than I remembered. Strong 4.5.

Musically I really liked a lot of this, was a bit mathy in how everything fit together, like a bit more of a washy beachy foals. Wasn't completely on board with the singing though that might grow on me with more listens. Anything where the guitar was a bit more choppy I preferred, empty nest was good. Anything where the guitar was subdued and the singing was silly I didn't like as much eg when I'm sleepy. I think the things I don't like about this will fade a bit over time, it is a good album.

Some parts Elbow, some parts Fleet Foxes, some parts Editors. Also some Hot Division. Really good that. Went on blind, at times was taken aback. When I'm Sleepy... And We Still Got The Taste were the top tracks, but the whole thing was kind of mesmerising.

Never heard of wild beasts before. Reminded me in parts of the National. I'm not fully convinced, but it wasn't bad. Likely won't be back, but was right enough 2.5

Indie rock, art rock, dream pop.

Come on, you’re taking the piss now, right?

This is a new band for me. I dig 'em.

Ok

Not as bad as some people here seem to think.

Perfectly fine to play in the background with some standout parts

I don't think I recognize this artist or any of the tracks on this album by title. So I'm going into this completely blind. I find the vocals to be particularly off-putting. I could probably enjoy an instrumental version of this, as part of a "music to listen to while working" sort of playlist. But the vocals are distracting. It just doesn't work.

Day 46 Y'all are tripping this is way better than most of the indieslop in that era Fav track: Empty Nest

Weird funky cool

i didnt really have any expectations for this album and i ended up liking it so much more than i thought i would. not sure if its just late 2000's nostalgia but this was pretty great. it giving arcade fire vibes for sure. was that the xylophone at the end of Underbelly? because i loved that. It made the playlist.

Not for me, but it suited the mood I was in at the time. Can’t see myself coming back to it

I still can’t decide if I like this or not. I loved the music, very vibey and cool, had a deep Brian Eno feel. The vocals were terrible, that falsetto singing was horrendous.

If you can get used to the vocals this actually becomes pretty nice

I fuck with this.

Jeff Buckley lite art rock pop. It's fine but just kinda lifeless and empty to my ears despite the vocal dramatics.

Alternative 80's vibe music. Multi-personality vocals. Different.

Interesting.

When this started, I was really enjoying the music, which was a cool vibe and absolutely gorgeous. And then the lead singer's falsetto voice came in and destroyed that mood; it just didn't fit at all. This feels like the case for a lot of this album. When he sings in his regular register, things sound pretty good. There's still a lot of drama in his voice, but it's more in line with what the music calls for. The falsetto, which could work in some other musical context, doesn't work at all here, and takes away from the feeling rather than adding to it. Lovely musically, but disappointing on what the whole could've been. I'll buy the instrumental version if they release it. 2.7/5.

Mildly intriguing. May listen again. Might forget why I would want to.

I really tried to get into this one, but listening to Two Dancers felt like a total drag. Honestly? It just comes across as a boring, watered down version of bands like Arcade Fire or Doves. A few of the tracks have decent enough grooves with some nice bass and percussion, but it never really goes anywhere... it just stays stuck in this limp, repetitive loop that feels pretty unoriginal. The biggest issue for me is the singing. I know some people like the quirky, high-pitched falsetto, but I found it super annoying. It’s way too affected and dramatic, and it just clashes with the music to the point where it almost sounds like a parody.

I feel jealous of the people rating this one star because at least they had a meaningful experience listening to this album.

First play opinion: a bit smooth, a bit dull. Second play opinion: a bit smooth, a bit dull and the lead vocals are irritating. I don't see how this was rated so highly by contemporary critics.

Usually, I try listening to albums before checking the reviews. But other times, I can't listen to music in the moment, and I get curious. I did just that this morning. And boy, the top reviews don't paint a pretty picture, do they. So I went to this album with biases, and I was sure to hate it. And it's surprisingly good?? From what I gathered, it's the singing that's turning people off. It sounds a bit like opera. It's eerie, but often beautiful. And at least they're trying something different.

I like this music OK, but the vocals are off-putting. Too... operatic, maybe? When he's not doing the falsetto thing it can be OK, but most of the time I don't enjoy hearing the singer's voice, and that's a problem when you are listening to music with vocals. I was not familiar with Wild Beasts and I suppose I am happy now that I know they existed. But I absolutely did not need to hear this before I die.

Good

Liked the music, but didn’t f with some of the vocals. 2/5

7/10

Number: 255 Familiarity: None (1) Rating: 3 ======= Never heard of these guys before. It wasn't near as bad as a lot of reviewers state, imo. I actually liked a few songs a little, Through the Iron Gate being my favorite. My overall rating was 2.9.

Theres definitely some interesting sounds in the album. At times it has a beautiful and somewhat psychedelic sound. Other times its just boring and uninspiring. Can't really get along with his voice either lol.

It's such a pity to have this Wild Beasts album here because it's certainly not their best. They were one of the less popular indie darlings in the late 00s and early to mid-10s, and I think their sound evolved greatly record after record, with Present Tense being their best. On the other hand, Two Dancers is probably their most fun record lyrically. There's a lot of shoes and boots in it, it's very class-conscious, cheeky, and sexually charged, and that's why its most "serious" moments hit quite hard. The falsetto that seems to bother so many people here is part of the fun for me. This is especially true on songs like "All The King's Men," where singer Hayden Thorpe's shriek and bassist Tom Fleming's deeper voice don't only compliment each other but play a part of the story. As for the sound, this is so unmistakably an early 21st century British indie rock album. I grew up loving this music, so I am extremely biased into liking it. Still, I think it's a generally fun album that has a lot to offer. Not sure it will last the test of time to remain an indie album you need to hear before you die, but I won't be mad if it does.

Some nice easy listening songs are here. Enjoyed it while relaxing on the couch.

Bang average.

Her voice is hard to love

Sonically, I loved this. Lyrically, what the hell was going on? Even so, I have to admit the booty call/boot up your asshole run really did tickle me

I thought this was fine and had some interesting moments but I was expecting to recognise at least one song from it and I never did. the name was so familiar and yet I don't think I'd heard anything. Probably The Fun Powder Plot, Hooting & Howling, or Two Dancers Pt 1 were my favourites

Is there an instrumental version of this?

Thought this was nice … for about 30 seconds - then they started singing. Feckin shite 👎👎

I liked it for the most part but the vocals started to wear on me.

Your standard modern indie affair with emasculated vocals and whatnot. Meh.

Once again an indie band thinks they can be Radiohead

some songs are quite nice, but ultimately not a super interesting record

2/5

If you asked me to describe working in an Apple Store in the 2010s, I would just put this album on.

Fine Indy

For me, this was Radiohead-lite.

I smell hipster Bullshit. I sHoUlD gIvE ThIs FiVe sTaRs JuSt tO bE iRoNiC. Type of hipster bullshit. The harmonies are good at times & so is the music. Then. The voice(s)? Show up Just dreadful. Makes you long for instrumentals & the end. A bad, boring My Morning Jacket impression. 1

I was not optimistic after the horrible first track, but then I found myself enjoying it. Still not planning to listen again.

Good! Just kinda okay British indie, weird that it’s on here