return of the knives

Good to read over at Drowned in Sound that the Young Knives are heading back into the studio soon to start work on the second album. It's been a while since I've seen them live and I'm not sure that they played any new songs when I did, so I'll be coming to their new stuff cold. I'm quite interested to hear how it will sound - one of the reasons I like the band so much is that they're so versatile. My favourite stuff on the first record is not the poppy, single-oriented material (indeed while 'The Decision' still sounds amazing, 'She's Attracted To' sounds pretty one-dimensional and flat in retrospect) but the darker, more menacing material, which is leaner and more aggressive. An album of frustration and fury is what I'd like next.

Except that the other beauty of the Knives is that their b-sides and demos around the time of 'Voices of Animals and Men' were arguably better than the bulk of the album, and they displayed a disarming, off-kilter folk influence you can't hear that much on the album. An album of pastoral pop would be equally welcome; listen to 'Tailors', the marvellous 'Current Of The River' or the equally wonderful 'Worcestershire Madman' for examples. Indeed, with the Wicker Man style imagery on the last batch of releases I'd be surprised if that's not the direction they choose.

Or we'll just have to settle for another batch of hit singles, I guess!

Anyway, they're going into the studio presently to record with Tony Doogan, who produced Mogwai in the past. So, yay.