Charlie Fink makes his influences clear on Noah and the Whale’s official debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. Fink channels his love of folk greats such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young while managing to infuse his own early obsession with the ideas of life, death and love. Fink sings poetically bittersweet lyrics entwined with deceptively joyful melodies.
Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down wastes no time in establishing a distinct sound, kicking off with a catchy folk-verging-on-country guitar lick in “2 Atoms in a Molecule.” While it is a charming, upbeat jig, the rapid guitar gets tangled up with Fink’s vocals, who is trying to put out as many lyrics as they can per second, becoming jumbled and losing cohesion. While instrumentally the songs are verging on brilliant in some cases, the first few tunes lack the substance to make them memorable.
The album exudes country twang, solid folk-rock and hippie campfire sing-a-longs until it hits its stride with “Do What You Do,” where the band ditches its joyful persona for a more sensitive side. With the help of ethereal echoes, a minimalist approach with the acoustic guitar and heartfelt vocal delivery, the band seems altogether more believable as artists and songwriters.
Fink manages throughout the album to compensate for any lack of lyrical, vocal or instrumental prowess a song may possess by arranging the songs in such a way leaves you satisfied after a listen. There are a few lyrical duds, such as “Second Lover,” where ukelele, backing vocals and shakers save it from lines like “I don’t know your names, your real age, or your shoe size”. The most brilliant moment comes with “5 Years Time,” the first single. It reached No. 7 in the UK, and in it the band creates a folk-pop masterpiece and leaves you with a smile on your face.
Fink and the gang manage to cover a whole lot of ground in 11 tracks, including an erratic 3-in-1 effort reminiscent of “Bohemian Rhapsody” called “Rocks & Daggers”. There are also heartwrenchingly sad ballads to love gone bad, and the album closes with a stirringly powerful Sigur Ros-esque ode to life, love and death.
On a fairly consistent debut effort, though,Fink seems to be the master and commander of the project, it is his bandmates’ instrumentation and often genius arrangements that make these songs worth the listen and are likely to leave you smiling. Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down is a great start for Noah and the Whale.
