Local Natives - World News

  by Tara McEvoy

published: 15 / 8 / 2010

Label: Infectious Music
Format: CDS

intro

Potentially promising single from LA-based art rockers Local Natives, which, however, seems better suited to being an album track

It may be grandiosely titled, but ‘World News’, if a good song at the very least, isn’t exactly what you would call earth shattering. Indeed, the opening is positively, well bland – something more suited to bands like tThe Fray than this group of LA urchins. Thankfully, any mediocrity is short lived – with the introduction of a cowbell, the skittish, afrobeat-indebted hooks synonymous with the band, and pathos-infused harmonies, Local Natives signal their arrival. Perhaps not as immediately captivating as output such as the earlier ‘Airplanes’ or ‘Sun Hands’, the loosely structured ‘World News’ draws parallels with the work of artists such as Born Ruffians, perhaps even the more experimental Dirty Projectors, replete with the resonance of a school choir (albeit the coolest school choir you’ll ever have the fortune to stumble across). Yet, it feels like more of an album track than a single, a song which sets the tone rather than declares a mission statement. Definitely a song for the summer, but never quite the song of the summer. Arguably the best moment arrives in the form of a raucous, discordant, wailed chorus – Local Natives needn’t try and emulate any of their peers, for it’s when they let themselves go that they really shine. By the standards of any other band, ‘World News’, would sound an accomplished single, complete, even, with the occasional flash of brilliance. Not a bad track by a long chalk, then, but one can’t help but feel that, for this band at least, the best is yet to come.

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