Light Of Words - Those Left Behind

 

Light of Hooks, Light of Energy but Heavy on Comatose Miserabilia, Bristol’s Light of Words struggle to make an impression with their debut album. They start well with Trip Up, a strong distillation of their soporific style that combines insect-like percussion with frail layers of guitar and vacant vocals before a fuzzed out outro agitates the chilled pace. It’s a dynamic echo of The Notwist’s slumbering electronica, but its meandering is symptomatic of things to come. Songs like Stepping Through Shadows are built around a single idea too slender to support their bloatedness, while the occasional post-rock crescendos are too humdrum to rouse emotion. Often they seem to be making half-hearted bids for Coldplay territory, guitars cloaked in Edge-style reverb with Chris Dean’s cracked voice personifying plaintiveness. Undiluted melancholia is a tough sell, and Light of Words’ glimmers and shimmers are too delicate to punch through the drowsiness. [Chris Buckle]