The Maccabees - Marks To Prove It

After a dry spell of nearly 4 years, the Maccabees are finally back. Following their widely praised reappearance at Glastonbury, they are definitely, certainly, undeniably, back.

Marks To Prove It is a testament to what The Maccabees can do when they cut loose. The album was brought about after four years of creative stagnation, unsure of how to follow the ethereally layered Given To The Wild, and they've found the answer in unashamedly turning their backs from their previous work and embracing a more nocturnal, haunting quality that they've found.

It's a very self-contained album, kicking off with the rawness of the title track; every song, from the beautiful and heart-wrenching River Song to the unexpectedly tragic Something Like Happiness, ties and flows in to one another. The band relies on the stripped-back pianos in Spit It Out and Silence to provide a tenderness, although far from feeling worn or clichéd as a device, it adds the perfect amount of emotional sensitivity to the songs.

The album brings to light a darker, more thoughtful side of The Maccabees. Even the title of the song WW1 Portraits demonstrates a broadening of their material, which pays off. There's no pretending to be the nation's sweetheart band; there's a brutal candidness contained with the simplicity of the lyrics 'just so beautiful', repeated throughout the song and most notably at a point when you think the band are about to break down into their trademark guitar-heavy, high-flying vocals bridge, but which remains at the same volume level as singer Orlando Weeks' murmured intro.

Lead singer Orlando Weeks

The feel of the other tracks grounds the album in the band's native Elephant and Castle in its frankness: it doesn't pretend to be bubbly and upbeat, as Toothpaste Kisses was, because it isn't. Songs like Ribbon Road may, from the title, promise a certain amount of alliterative joy in the way it rolls of your tongue, but the rolling drums and darker, crunching chords undercut Weeks' soaring voice.

Yes, Marks To Prove It is absolutely nothing like Given To The Wild. Yes, it will be a disappointment to fans who were expecting it to be. No, this is not a bad thing. In fact, it couldn't be better.

Rating: 8/10

Recommended tracks:
River Song
Dawn Chorus
Spit It Out

Lianne La Havas - Blood

With her 2012 debut Is Your Love Big Enough?, Lianne La Havas took everyone by surprise, including herself; the titular track from her debut claims 'never thought it would happen/But I found myself in a secondhand guitar'. Ya know what, Lianne? We're so glad you did.

Where Is Your Love Big Enough? was a very raw portrayal of heartbreak, Blood displays a distance that shows how much La Havas has grown up. Wonderful and Good Goodbye are beautiful not only in their composition but their forgiveness and maturity. La Havas' voice transports the listener to a place that's built on the purest strain of each emotion, and when you arrive with her you can't help but cry at how beautiful and terrifying this place is. La Havas is far from your typical Identikit female singer-songwriter who plays guitar, and the sheer purity of her voice and lyrics is enough to prove this.

The trick to La Havas is that she doesn't dwell on one aspect for too long. Although she is undeniably brilliant at the more elegiac songs, she injects beautifully unexpected punches into her tracks that make her music so hard to pin down: the horns in Green & Gold that provides funk for the chorus and a floating melody for the bridge; Never Get Enough starts off as a typically acoustic guitar-driven song, with the unexpected feedback of an electric guitar kicking in for the chorus, shifting effortlessly between the two for the rest of the song; the reverb on 'turn' halfway through Grow; the entrancing intro of Unstoppable that shifts effortlessly to the wonderful pop song it is. Lianne La Havas is much more than a soul singer, but it doesn't do to pigeon-hole her. We'll only end up confused.

With many artists, there's a tendency to abandon completely what made them famous in the first place. With Blood, La Havas recognises that her guitar makes her special, and every song is carried in some way by this. Everything from Unstoppable, which expands to the size of a galaxy as it goes on, to Midnight, is upheld in some part by the familiar pangs of a guitar. Far from inhibiting the development of her songs, these two examples alone show how it merely provides a platform for La Havas to make dazzling leaps and bounds in development.

I don't think we even need to mention the sheer bedazzling power and range of her voice. She's astounding.

Lianne La Havas crept onto the scene in 2012. Blood boldly pushes the door open, proclaiming her presence.

Rating: 8/10

Recommended tracks:
Unstoppable
Green & Gold
Never Get Enough