Neonfly – Outshine The Sun (2011)
- Broken Wings
- The Enemy
- Ship With No Sails
- A Gift To Remember
- The Revenant
- The Ornament
- Reality Shift
- Spitting Blood
- Morning Star
- The Messenger
- Think I Saw A UFO
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London has been burning these past few weeks. Literally in some parts; the fires of anger in others where a lack of understanding that the working-class looting is no different to the systematic looting committed at the highest levels of government and capitalism’s cigar-smoking, coke-snorting fiends of finance. The lack of justice and the perception of the two acts is at once shameful and terrifying. Reasons will be sought, debated over in that uniquely British way over pints of ale in down-trodden pubs and under the glare of studio lights on Newsnight. None will be found. Perhaps it was all because they heard Neonfly were releasing an album and they just couldn’t wait? It would take a leap of imagination so great to link the two together but listening to this album now, for the fourth time in succession would give one cause to tear London apart just to snatch the first copy from the hands of a terrified Sales Assistant.
For those that have followed Neonfly since their birth into this world, some of these tracks won’t be surprising. What will catch the breath at the back of the throat or send shivers of excitement along your decadent flesh like the aftertaste of the slave’s lash is the mere fact that they can be played at home without the need for messrs. Thunder, Harrington, Norton, Miller and Le Gal to upset the neighbours by playing live. In your living room. Over and over again. Because listening to this album will do that to you: it will make you play it again.
Every song has well-crafted lyrics free of the usual cliche and the whole is bedded with a mistress of orchestration of such alluring beauty that you will be unable to control you desires for anything other than wanting more. We have seen them live on a few occasions now and they have delivered with almost perfection each time with some of the tracks off this album almost classics despite this being their first full-length release, “Broken Wings” and “Ship With No Sails” will be instantly recognisable to devotees.
Willy Norton’s vocals are superb throughout, varied in their range with the full range being displayed to greatest effect on “Spitting Blood” (a new favourite track in the office!) but what is most astounding is the vocal harmonies on each track. There is nothing here that could be immediately grasped by the most bitter critic as being dull or lacking in invention, each song gives the impression of being composed rather than merely put together behind a single riff or demand to fit some pre-defined expectation of genre.
There is a general sense of depth when listening to this brilliant debut. These guys feel like musicians creating a piece of art; a serious piece of art. The album has now just ended its fifth play-through and there is very little to fault with soaring, catchy choruses throughout that will leave you chasing the high of another play because fifty minutes will flash by and the shakes of addiction will begin. Fuck knows what they will pull out of the Magician’s hat for the next album but it’s gonna have to be monumental to be better than this.
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