Photo Credit: Ry Cox
The Boxer Rebellion recently released their first album in eight years, following on from 2018’s Ghost Alive. Was it worth the wait? Hell yeah! Bring The Noise were lucky enough to catch their live show in Glasgow a couple of weeks before the album release, where they treated us to four tracks from the album alongside a parade of other popular songs.
The Second I’m Asleep opens with Flowers In The Water, a track which has already become a firm favourite with fans at the live shows – it certainly went down really well in Glasgow. Vocalist Nathan Nicholson opens with some dark lyrics: “Every year you live it / no second thought is given / that this’ll be the day that you die someday / but it won’t be now.” We are only one song in and looking at one of the best on the album already. Last of a Dying Breed has some great guitar riffs and the vocals and keyboards from Nicholson are once again outstanding, while Hidden Meanings shows off his vocal chord range. This is a more mellow, laidback song until we near the end, when Andrew Smith’s guitar work kicks in.
This House is played in a more upbeat Americana style, while Storm Chaser strips things back to a more acoustic-led sound and it is Nicholson’s vocals that standout once again. We are already halfway through the ten-track album as Satellite Above provides some thought-provoking lyrics in “Some people don’t know how to let go / the same feeling as the day before / big brother always watching over / the satellite above.” Don’t Leave Yet should be a ‘phone torches on’ moment if The Boxer Rebellion ever decide to play it live, the keyboard-led track slows things right down before Perceptions breathes more life into the album with some great guitar work.
The seventh studio album from The Boxer Rebellion would be well suited to a long drive through the Highlands of Scotland with the windows down (if weather permits!). The laid-back style of the music really does take you to another place at times. Second Guess and Your Side Of Town conclude a very reflective album that has been my soundtrack a lot of late, and deservedly so.
9/10
Standout Tracks: Flowers In The Water, Hidden Meanings, Satellite Above
For Fans Of: The War On Drugs, White Lies, Somebody’s Child
Written by: Alan Brown
