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TWO
WINGS - LOVE'S SPRING
Tin Angel Recods
 The
voice of Two Wings singer Hanna Tuulikki is something of an acquired
taste – like Joanna Newsome singing soul, her little girl
sound is going to be something you either love or hate on first
hearing. Match this with music that mixes soul, blues and psychedelia
with brass sounds, and this is quite the oddity. Unfortunately,
it's ultimately not very rewarding.
Brassy soul opener Eikon gets things
going with a swing, but things quickly slow down for the downbeat
folky acoustic duet Feet, Tuulikki’s
voice blending with bandmate Ben Reynolds rather effectively.
The style shifts again with the title track, seven and a half
minutes of medieval folk that sounds rather like a teenage Kate
Bush singing with Steeleye Span that eventually evolved into an
extended prog-rock guitar solo.
So, three tracks in and everything is wildly different in style
yet somehow making sense. And the mix of styles continues, though
with a rapidly diminishing level of success. Valley
is an ineffective country rocker, as twee and unconvincing as
any 1970s faux rock ‘n’ roll act, and Altars
and Thrones, with male vocals to the fore, is rather
plodding. The same could be said about bluesy Just
Like, and it’s at this point that the album
starts to feel like hard work. If you can judge the quality of
an album by how long it feels like you’ve been
listening to it, then this record is somewhat lacking –
midway through this track, it began to feel as though I’d
had this record playing all afternoon, rather than just over half
an hour. And as the tedious It Hurt Me
dragged on, it was all I could do to stop myself skipping ahead.
Things pick up a little with closing track Forbidden
Sublime, another lengthy number that is overly sluggish,
but at least builds to some sort of climax. But it’s still
pretty uninspiring.
It’s odd to find an album that goes downhill so quickly;
I’m tempted to say that it might be that the novelty of
the band wore off after the first three tracks – but a quick
re-listen still suggests that those numbers were impressive. But
the remainder of the album feels like a band that has run out
of steam and ideas. A pity, as the openers show capability, but
this is very much a case of potential unfulfilled I’m afraid.
DAVID
FLINT
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