Noah and the Whale - Studio Albums Clollection 2008-2013 (4CD)

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Noah and the Whale - Studio Albums Clollection 2008-2013 (4CD)

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Noah and the Whale became a leading light in the British folk scene with the release of 2008's Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, their popular debut that cracked the U.K. Top Ten and spawned the hit single "5 Years Time." Formed in the southern suburbs of London, the band also attracted attention by serving as a launching pad for Laura Marling, who left the lineup to 2008 to launch an award-winning solo career. Noah and the Whale forged ahead in her absence, releasing albums that moved away from the band's folky bedrock while still maintaining a good amount of chart success.

Originally comprised of Charlie Fink (vocals, guitar, harmonica, ukulele), Tom Hobden (fiddle), Matt "Urby Whale" Owens (harmonium, bass), Laura Marling (backing vocals), and Doug Fink (drums), the group began taking shape in 2006 in Twickenham. By early 2008, the bandmates had released several independent singles (including an early version of "5 Years Time") and attracted attention from Vertigo Records, who signed Noah and the Whale several months later. The band made its major-label debut that September with the summery, pastoral Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. Released several weeks later in the United States, the album featured a re-recorded version of "5 Years Time," which peaked at number seven on the U.K. charts and helped expand the band's following at home and abroad. Marling exited the group several months after the album's release, though, and her relationship with Charlie Fink ended shortly thereafter. Both events inspired the group's second album, The First Days of Spring, which dealt heavily with Fink's breakup and gathered praise for its cinematic arrangements.

Last Night on Earth followed in 2011, signaling a move beyond the folk-rock sound of the band's early material which was instigated by the departure of drummer – and Charlie Fink's brother – Doug Fink and the addition of guitarist Fred Abbott. Without a drummer they were forced to experiment with a drum machine, which produced much of the electronic influence found on Last Night on Earth. In the following year they recruited Michael Petulla on drums and toured the country. In 2013, the band announced their fourth record, Heart of Nowhere, which was also accompanied by a short film.

Biography by Andrew Leahey, Allmusic.com

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Noah and the Whale - Studio Albums Clollection 2008-2013 (4CD)

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Noah and the Whale - Studio Albums Clollection 2008-2013 (4CD)

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Noah and the Whale aren't doing anything hugely unique on their debut album Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down. You can hear bands playing a quite similar brand of strummy, plummy folk-pop on indie film soundtracks, and there are quite strong threads of Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire, the Magic Numbers, and a hundred other popular indie poppers running through their sound. This familiarity could breed contempt very easily, but the band manages to escape relatively unscathed and come up with an album that adds to the canon instead of just being a pale exercise in copycat-ism. Credit singer/songwriter Charlie Fink for writing a batch of catchy songs with real emotional depth and singing them convincingly without ever coming close to overselling the emotion. Laura Marling deserves some credit, too, for providing lovely and absolutely essential backing vocals throughout (Fink produced her acclaimed debut record Alas I Cannot Swim), as does the band for providing subtle but dramatic backing at every turn. The core band of guitars, keys, and violins is accompanied by horns on most tracks and producer Eliot James is adept at blending all the instruments and creating dynamics. Without a light and agile touch, a track like "Give a Little Love" could have turned into a mawkish mess as the song swells to its emotional conclusion; as it stands, it becomes a heart-swelling moment of beauty instead. The group also do happy as well as they do heavy, for every melancholy tune like "Second Lover" there's a bouncy, smile-inducing song like "5 Years Time" that has a feeling of joy that's hard to convincingly convey in song without sounding trite and phony. Noah and the Whale never sound phony and they never feel forced, they also never seem in thrall to their influences. Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down could have been all kinds of terrible but instead turns out to be an album that fans of the bands mentioned earlier, plus fans of intelligent and heart-felt indie folk-pop, should probably investigate.

Review by Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com

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Noah and the Whale - Studio Albums Clollection 2008-2013 (4CD)

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Noah and the Whale's second album finds frontman Charlie Fink ruminating over his failed relationship with Laura Marling, a fellow songwriter (and former love interest) who played a key role in the band's debut. With music serving as his therapy, Fink fills The First Days of Spring with lush soundscapes and folksy melancholy, finding the beauty that exists in the neutral territory between both camps. This is a cinematic album, one that's meant to be heard in conjunction with its accompanying film (also titled The First Days of Spring, available as part of the album's deluxe edition), and the track list unfolds in appropriate blockbuster fashion. Several tracks set the scene, others advance the plot, and two instrumental pieces serve as gorgeous transition pieces. Laura Marling is nowhere to be found, of course – her split with Fink has essentially turned Noah and the Whale into an all-male group – yet her influence permeates the album, from Fink's disillusioned lyrics to the band's vacillations between elated anthems and intimate, disconsolate ballads. Heartbreak can tear a songwriter to shreds, but it serves the opposite purpose here, lending a sense of vulnerability to Fink's baritone and adding some much-needed drama to the band's music, which previously concerned itself with twee-styled progressions and summery melodies. Noah and the Whale has officially grown up.

Review by Andrew Leahey, Allmusic.com

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Noah and the Whale - Studio Albums Clollection 2008-2013 (4CD)

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On The First Days of Spring, Charlie Fink mourned the absence of ex-girlfriend/ex-bandmate Laura Marling while the rest of Noah & the Whale churned up a sympathetic mix of folk and sad-eyed indie rock. Released two years later, Last Night on Earth finds the band recharged and redirected. “He used to be somebody, now he’s someone else… and it feels like heaven,” Fink sings on the opening track, a tribute to transformation that doubles as the album’s mission statement. Although released during the golden days of England’s indie folk scene, Last Night on Earth reaches far beyond the genre, relying heavily on keyboards and leaving the acoustic riffage to Mumford & Sons. Some of the basslines are synthesized instead of plucked, and some of the percussion is programmed instead of played. At times, the band appears single-minded in its determination to turn over a new rock, and the album suffers whenever Last Night on Earth focuses on presentation – the polished production, the overdubbed handclaps – instead of content. But those moments are few and far between. Noah & the Whale sound genuinely happy to be exploring a new direction, and tracks like “Tonight’s the Kind of Night” fuse the Arcade Fire’s chest-swelling anthems with smart, radio-ready sensibilities. On “Wild Thing,” Fink proves he can still wring some serious mileage out of melancholy, too, delivering a Matt Berninger-like vocal over synths and lonely guitar lines.

Review by Andrew Leahey, Allmusic.com

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Noah and the Whale - Studio Albums Clollection 2008-2013 (4CD)

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Throughout their career, indie folk outfit Noah and the Whale have undergone many transitions from record to record that have allowed them to grow and mature, from their early young-and-in-love debut, to the achingly beautiful break-up album The First Days of Spring. Their fourth record, Heart of Nowhere, is no different and follows the groundwork put in place by their third outing Last Night on Earth. The entire record rides on uplifting, '80s-inspired, radio-friendly melodies that belie the still troubled Charlie Fink, whose intimately personal lyrics are perhaps closer to the truth than the names given on "One More Night" and "Still After All These Years" would suggest. Here Fink delves headfirst into a nostalgic look to past lovers, lost nights, and growing up, told with his typically melancholic slant. The crisp, violin-led title track, which features Anna Calvi's commanding voice – the first female vocals to take center stage on a Noah and the Whale track since Laura Marling – immediately announces their renewed, assured sound this time out. The lively "All Through the Night" channels the carefree rock of Bruce Springsteen and coaxes Fink to raise his usual gentle croon into a rare moment of unrestrained passion. As the record draws to a close, "There Will Come a Time" pops up with a slice of marvelous pop/rock that ticks all the right boxes for a perfect summer anthem and later sees Fink continue in his personal musical therapy with the affirming "Now Is Exactly the Time." The striking production – namely the driving bass and tight drum sound – that Arcade Fire mixer Craig Silvey has conjured up here has created a spacious sounding record that is packed with strings and synths and is for the most part – rather impressively – recorded live. After three successful releases, this album sees Fink take stock of his life after years of touring and come to the realization that he, along with his friends and family, have long since grown up and left his much revered youth behind.

Scott Kerr, Allmusic.com