Noah And The Whale were a staple on my high school playlists. I think it happened after watching a YouTube video of The Vaccines performing “If You Wanna” live on Australian radio, the lead singer of Noah And The Whale on lead vocals because Justin was too sick to sing. After that I played The First Days of Spring an awful lot, because all the songs were hopeful and peaceful and they calmed my chaotic brain. In 2013 they released new music and “There Will Come A Time” wormed its way into my most played tracks.
I forgot about them until sometime last year, sitting in Old Bar on the University of Leeds campus with my friends, hearing “Tonight’s The Kind Of Night” start playing over the speakers. I added it to the hundred-song playlist I added to over the course of my six months abroad. I listened to that playlist all of last summer until I couldn’t anymore. And then, in the shower this morning, the water pounding rivulets into the back of my neck, I was reminded of this band. It came out of nowhere. I’ve never listened to this album in full. And it seems like the right thing for today.
This is an album for the New Year, or an album to usher it in, at least. That first track, “Life Is Life,” it’s encouragement in three and a half minutes. And it feels like his new life can start, and it feels like heaven. The track after that is about change and about opportunity and hope and new beginnings. Tonight’s the kind of night where everything could change. “Give It All Back” turns starting over into nostalgia. “Just Me Before We Met” might be my favourite, a pause to look back on years before everything changed, to look forward into the future with the ones you love. It’s better to live than to hide. “Waiting For My Chance To Come” could sound dejected but it’s not, it’s all just hope for brighter and lighter things in the future.
This is perhaps the best record I could have picked for today. I’m going to play it again now, relishing in the endings and in the new beginnings, dancing around my room, scrawling the best lyrics in my notebooks. I’m going to think about what’s coming and what I’m letting go of and I’m going to open my heart to everything around me. That seems like the only way forward.
Babbleogue. 