Dry the River - Alarms in the Heart

(CD Album Review)

***

Heartfelt but not overly alarming!

In between seemingly playing every festival going Dry the River have written and released their second full album 'Alarms in the Heart'. Opening with the title track it is a mix of their fast paced fusion of Indie, Rock with a slight Folk twang thrown in, so lots of appeal across the alternative genres. It does not take much to see how they have gained a sizeable fan base pretty quickly with the cross appeal shown immediately. Their softer side comes across on 'Roman Candle' which has a hint or early Elbow sound about it, before they threw in the orchestras. Talking of slightly older alternative bands on this track they have a bit of help from Emma Pollock formerly of the Delgado’s, another band you can hear strains of coming through in the dark but engaging side of this track. A idea that is equally evident on 'It was love that laid us low'.

They seem to have their future panned out though with tracks such as 'Gethsemane' and 'Rollerskate' seemingly their arena filling tunes of the future with a big all-encompassing sound building to a crescendo. The vein of mass appeal also comes through on 'Everlasting Light' which just has that classic festival highlights reel sound about it, you almost expect some unknown Radio 1 DJ to announce it, again it just sounds likes it fits the genres perfectly. This is not to imply they are not creative, they just seem to naturally have a well crafted sound that is easy to relate to and listen to. It all comes to an end with 'Hope Diamond' which is a a bit of a slow burner but then seems to revisit the sounds of the album, almost a recap. Indie bits, fast bits, slow bits in fact the whole shooting match in about four minutes.

This is followed by two minutes of static and then a secret track, which is a bit of a shame as the official last song finished it nicely and is actually a stronger track, almost feels like they had one song left they were not sure what to do with. Not that it should detract from the album as a whole. So what is the overall verdict, as I say it has a natural wide appeal which is a double edged sword as I feel it never really gets going. Maybe as they move further into their careers they may need to edge more into one of the genres and really develop that side.