Air Cav – Don’t Look Indoors

Air Cav have broken their three year silence with the arrival of long awaited debut album, ‘Don’t Look Indoors’.  After a string of well received singles back in 2008, they pulled back from the brink and hunkered down to record this album of soaring anthems – and taking their time seems to have paid off.

A wash of folk melodies underpinned with sharp driving percussion, the album captures your attention and refuses to let go.  The first track, and next single, ‘A Call To Arms’, throws you straight into a distortion tinged frenzy with the contrasting gypsy jazz violin wailing out over the pulsing beat. It’s a catchy single with minimal vocal and the violin taking the really memorable melody, a brave move but it really works.

‘Alliance’ and ‘Picking at the Bones’ were both released previously as singles to critical acclaim. They are big fuzzy anthems with a slightly raw edge that really appeals. When a band sits on songs for so long there’s always a worry they will come out the other end over produced, happily with these tracks this is not the case.

The stand out track of the album is ‘Exile’. The violin takes on a sloppy hurdy-gurdy sound and coupled with the swelling atmospheric cymbals and chugging reverb swamped guitars, the track really straddles the electro-folk genre successfully.

As the end of the album approached I started to wonder if the band have perhaps had too much time to tinker with the album.  If the album was perhaps a bit more loose and haphazard it would feel more real and emotive. As it stands the production is amazing and the album is packed with radio friendly anthems but I am left wanting more.

 

Air Cav Website