Saturday, November 16, 2019

Albums of the Year # 40 Penelope Isles - Until The Tide Creeps In

From July:

Until The Tide Creeps In, is the charming and noteworthy debut album from Brighton four-piece Penelope Isles released last Friday. Driven by brother and sister songwriting combination Jack and Lily Wolter, it's a highly aquatic sounding album, appropriate given the band's place of residence and the record sleeve picture of some hairy bloke, (possibly the Wolter dad),  gesticulating triumphantly over the full on sandcastle he's just created.


What this is is definitely Indie in the definitive sense. It reminded me at first of Shoegaze most particularly and took me back to a spectacular gig I saw in 1990 where Pale Saints and Lush played together at a spectacular gig at Norwich Art Centre during my last few months at university. From a cursory look at interviews with Penelope Isles it seems highly unlikely that they've taken notes from those two bands. Radiohead and Tame Impala seem to be the most prominent mentions. Anyhow, Until The Tide Creeps In is a good enough record to merit consideration on its own assets alone, which are appreciable. 


At first listening I preferred the Lily fronted songs to the Jack fronted ones but on repeat plays found his were creeping up on me too. Anyhow, it's like with Big Star, you don't have to choose between Chilton and Bell, and the variety of moods and slants of subtle attack on the album is one of its greatest drawing points. It's tuneful, it's breezy, it's thoughtful and it's a record that should be one the discerning listener will keep coming back to over the coming months.




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