Secret Cities - Walk Me Home

  by Mark Rowland

published: 17 / 6 / 2014

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Review

Secret Cities is a loose-ish sort of band, with all the members working remotely together for the first years of the band’s existence. ‘Walk Me Home’ represents the first time the band had got together to record since they first met nine years ago. ‘Walk Me Home’ is the product of the three members’ divergent tastes. At a basic level, the resulting music would probably appeal to fans of Arcade Fire and the Shins, sharing both the former’s layered atmospherics and the latter’s way with a 60’s-inflected pop melody. There’s also a little 50’s rock and roll balladry in there, and perhaps a touch of Scott Walker. For all the disparate influences, however, at its heart is great, intelligent pop music. Upbeat demi-soul number ‘Bad Trip’ is a standout, as is ‘Playing with Fire’, which starts of sounding like a ballad in the Roy Orbison ballad before taking off in unexpected directions. The title track is an epic, sweeping song that starts of dressed in’ Sung Tongs’-era Animal Collective clothing, before shedding them to embrace its own epicness. It doesn’t all work – ‘Thumbs’ doesn’t quite hold together, though it has good bits to it and ‘Paraside’ sounds a bit too close to Arcade Fire in places, but overall, the band succeeds.

Track Listing:-

1 Purgatory
2 Bad Trip
3 Paradise
4 The Rooftop
5 Interlude
6 Thumbs
7 Playing With Fire
8 Walk Me Home
9 The Cellar
10 Interlude 2
11 It’s Always Summer
12 It’s Always Winter
13 Sun Enclosure

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/secretcitiesm
http://secretcitiesmusic.com/
https://twitter.com/secretcitiesss

Label Links:-

http://westernvinyl.com/
https://instagram.com/westernvinyl/
https://twitter.com/westernvinyl
https://www.youtube.com/user/westernvi
https://www.facebook.com/westernvinyl