The Amazing – Piggies

Indie Rock | Psychedelic Rock | Dream Pop

80%

 

You know that feeling when a friend or loved one refuses to let you sit in sadness? Maybe you’re facing a difficult time, maybe you let your thoughts stray a bit too far and found yourself burdened by your own overthinking, or maybe it’s just one of those days where nothing has gone right. In those moments sometimes it feels like the best course of action is to ride the wave. To wallow in the sadness, allowing yourself to feel it all until the storm passes. We shut ourselves away and become numb to the world, but every so often the people we care about see what’s happening and try to chip away at that armour. Instead of holding your hand and sitting through the storm with you, they’ll do their damnedest to force a smile or make you laugh. At the time it feels frustrating and insensitive to have someone telling jokes and sharing funny stories when you’re busy trying to mope in peace, and it’s only in hindsight that you recognise and appreciate the loving, helping hand that was being offered. 

My favourite way to engage with The Amazing’s music is to drink it in like sadness. To surrender to the swirling vortex the band creates and just see where the current takes me. Hit play and dissociate, let the soundscapes spread across my mind like an inkblot in water, until the outside world becomes a blur. Let me tell you, there’s no better soundtrack for watching raindrops race across a window pane, or seeing vast swathes of countryside rush by on a long train journey. There’s a depth and a darkness to their sound; listening to one of their records feels like you’re treading water with a fathomless ocean stretching on forever beneath your feet. The band releasing a new album in midwinter felt like perfect timing. As soon as the release date dropped I began planning how I would wrap it’s darkness around me like a blanket and hibernate away from the world till spring. 

Yet while the dreamy expansive of ‘Piggies’ (not a fan of the name) is unmistakably The Amazing, it is not the album I was hoping it would be. I wanted to get lost in the fog, and instead I’m confronted with their brightest and most clearly defined body of work. The melodies are sweeter, the ebb and flow of the soundscapes feel more like breaking waves and sea spray than deep twisting currents, and where before the vocals were just another instrument, another thread in the tapestry, here they ring out with surprising clarity. ‘Streetfighter‘ has all the warmth and vibrancy of a lush coral reef, ‘Cinnamon’ is home to some endearingly playful guitar work, while ‘I Think I Found A Way’s strong sense of rhythm and light hazy earworm melodies evokes The Cure in a few places. The title track and ‘Figurehead’ meanwhile strip things back a fair deal; with the former being a folky autumnal number deeply reminiscent of Nick Drake, while the latter makes room for some wonderfully expressive drum work. 

The album ends in fine form with ‘Through The Cracks’. Opening with an attention grabbing interplay between emphatic bass and soft meandering guitar, the track delivers a slow burn which ultimately unfurls into a shimmering synth finale. It’s a moment so bright and blissful that I can’t help but be uplifted. It’s that moment when a loved one gets you to crack a smile and all the darkness begins to dissipate. This is an album that refuses to let you sink into the depths, its currents always lifting you back to the shallows. This is not the new album that I wanted from The Amazing – but I think it was the one I needed.