Album: There Will Be Fireworks
Artist: There Will Be Fireworks
Label: The Imaginary Kind
Release date: 1st July 2009
There could hardly be more lovely an opening to an album than “Colombian Fireworks”, the first song from There Will Be Fireworks‘ self-titled debut album. The electronic soundscape and mechanical effects give way to a guitar’s sparse wail and the slow tones of Stornoway poet Kevin MacNeil. I actually met MacNeil once, but that’s a sad and humorous story for another day.
There Will Be Fireworks is an incredibly fluid record: ebbing and flowing from acoustic love-songs to sweeping post-rock, and seeming entirely timeless while doing it. As the perfect innocence of young love in “Guising” explodes into the frenetic chaos of “Off With Their Heads”, it’s hard to tell where one song ends and the next begins, making it feel cohesive and fragmented at the same time: an epic series of starkly juxtaposed movements.
The gentle piano and slow brass of “A Kind of Furnace” seems so far removed from the crashing climax of “We Were A Roman Candle”, but it works so seamlessly that you find yourself unable to argue. The live-recorded instrumentation lends the sound a unique warmth and urgency, and it’s simply beautiful.
Everything about this album – from the subtle interweaving of precise guitars, classical instruments, and electronic noise to Nicholas McManus’ emotive vocals and thoughtful, charmingly naïve songwriting – comes together to create one of the most sophisticated and varied debut albums I have ever heard.
Our Arbitrary Numerical Verdict:
‘There Will Be Fireworks’, the debut album from There Will Be Fireworks, will be self-released on The Imaginary Kind on July 1st.
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Marcus Kernohan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Stereokill.net. Email him at 
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