EP Review :: The Ninth Wave - Never Crave Attention

EP

The Ninth Wave

Never Crave Attention

April 20 2018 (Distiller Records) 

9/10

Words: Richard Cobb

Last year’s ‘Reformation EP’ from The Ninth Wave was the kind of flawless 17 minutes that the blue half of Glasgow would kill for. It sounded like a band oozing with confidence and ready to take centre stage.

Judging by the title of their follow up EP ‘Never Crave Attention’, the band have taken the plaudits in their stride and having heard a few of these songs live earlier in the year, there wasn’t really any way this record was going to disappoint.

Picking up where things left off on the previous, 'New Kind of Ego’ rings out with moreish tones in the vein of Interpol and White Lies. Whilst it’s not massively different to songs from the last EP, if you listen closely you can tell the cohesion of the band is closer and there’s no hiding the band are playing out of their skin in the early stages of the latest offering.

‘Collapsible People’ captures all the raw energy and urgency of the band’s electric live shows and the looping synth and manic drumming are the battery acid to the song.

Though it’s only April, it will take a monumental effort to shift ‘Swallow Me’ from head of the table in my songs of the year list. The brutal honesty of the track and the performance levels make for a bit of an out-of-body experience when absorbed in this, that it's hard to tell if it’s a pleasurable or hide behind the sofa experience. As an aside, the accompanying video adds further fuel to the spine tingling, atmospheric bonfire the song creates that both could fit seamlessly into a Nordic slasher film.

With the uneven heartbeat to start off ‘We Can’t Go Anywhere Else’, one is reminded of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Heroin’ a bit, though that’s where the comparison ends. This track doesn't draw the attention as much as the ones that have preceded it; while the end is great and would make an ideal set closer with that level of energy, the build up isn’t quite as addictive on this EP closer.

Whilst the band might not be ones to crave attention, with a busy year ahead of them, they’ll be the most in demand thing in Scotland since pre-sugar tax Irn Bru.