The Wind Whistles – Window Sills (Aaahh Records)
Even more Folk today with Aaah Records prolific tourers ‘The Wind Whistles’, stable mates of the indifferent Keyboard Rebels and the really rather good Entertainment for the Braindead this Canadian duo fit somewhere in the middle of the bunch. Window Sills is overall a genuinely likable album, it’s not particularly exciting, it’s not exactly inspiring or innovative but it is really, really nice. There’s a steady stream of Folk coming through these days which fits into the ‘nice’ mould and whilst it can, generally, end up being a rather dull mass of identikit music The Wind Whistles manage to get away with it by doing it better than most. I find it hard to imagine anyone falling in love with this album, it lacks the edge of interest inspired by something like ‘Hydrophobia’ and ultimately being nice, both in music and life, is rarely particularly grabbing for the casual observer but on the other hand there’s no way anyone could ever object to having it lying around their hard drive, waiting to be aired out on a lazy, relaxed day. And if they did object then they’re probably the sort of people who don’t like kittens and who spend their weekends flicking matches into the faces of puppies so their opinions don’t matter anyway.
The best way I can think off to explain the music here is by comparison and even more conviniently they drop the obvious name in their own bio, The Decemberists and that’s no bad connection to draw. At times I even felt a traces of The White Stripes at their most gentle sneaking through which, although not a consistent inspiration, does add a dash of interest to an album which for the most part marches consistently along expected lines. Beyond that it’s hard to dig into their music in search of descriptions to make because it simply is what it is, listen to one track and you’ll be fairly enlightened as to whether you’ll like the rest, it’s Pop Folk as a genre encapsulated perfectly.
Anyway, overall view, worth a listen if Pop Folk noodlings are your thing and not worth a listen if it isn’t, this won’t drag you into the genre if you’re not a fan already and it won’t redefine it if you are. Might make you feel marginally nicer though, felt moved to bake a cake myself, but then I just had a cigarette and the urge abated.
Final Rating – 73%