When you hear an album you’ve highly anticipated for the first time and it not only meets but surpasses your expectations, there’s a feeling of it hitting your heart on that initial listen. Usually this comes from honest and powerful writing both musically and lyrically. The Xcerts are firing on all cylinders, returning home to a sound familiar to those who were fans of their earlier material.
‘I think I want to go home’ opens delicately with its title track, giving a raw, and yearning performance, those words accompanied by a lone piano before launching full force into single “Do It to Myself”. Don’t be disguised by its fast pace; it’s a story of self-sabotage: ‘There’s no one else that breaks me like I break myself’. The breakdown in the bridge is highly effective, building to the final chorus and outro.
Track 3, wow, can only be described by one word: wow. I reckon this will become a fan favourite live. While track 4, sinking feeling had been lingering in my mind since hearing it for the first time in the Beach Ballroom. ‘I got a head full of drunks that I can’t dry out. So I pour ‘em one more in the hope they’ll drown’ is certainly in competition for best line of the album.
bury you delivers another upbeat track with some hints of optimism this time before rinse repeat comes along to fully rip your heart out. The interpolation of the ‘will it always be like this’ lyric also found in do it to myself is a nice touch. Fans of ‘Scatterbrain’ will also enjoy single pretty ugly bringing grit and anger back into their sound.
Track 8 dream you in is a hauntingly beautiful piece of music whilst losing it delivers the catchiest hook of the album in the form of the chorus ‘oh’s. Closing out the album are breathe in what was, a nod to past times in Aberdeen, and in your eyes, which if you’ve managed to make it this far into the record without shedding a tear, I challenge you to make it through that last track. ‘This isn’t goodbye, this is I’ll love you forever.’
Coming in at a swift 34 minutes and 56 seconds, The Xcerts are back doing what they do best. They have a knack for taking something ugly and painful and turning it into something beautiful and cathartic. I’ve always said that the best music makes you feel something and god does this reach every single feeling that can be felt through some of life’s hardest experiences. Thank you Xcerts for delivering the album of the year.
Enjoy the album in full here, as well as the set from the in-store signing at Assai Records Aberdeen.