[REVIEW] We Were Promised Jetpacks - The Last Place You'll Look E.P

We Were Promised Jetpacks' debut 'These Four Walls' was released last year, and several lazy journalists compared them to Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad, because all three are Scottish and on FatCat Records. However, 'These Four Walls' was a Gang of Four-esque urgent affair, with bass and guitar hooks galore, making every song climax into a wall of noise and ferocity. Is 'The Last Place You'll Look' a simple imitation of 'These Four Walls'? The answer is a resounding 'no'.

Opener 'A Far Cry' is desperately bleak yet equally optimistic, as it indicates WWPJ are a band who have grown in a very short space of time. They are still doing everything they did on their debut but they are doing it more subtly and clinically. The song doesn't use quiet-loud dynamics for no reason, the bleak lament draws you in, then the thundering drums are introduced and truly take the song to a new level. The reworkings of 'Short Bursts' and 'This Is My House, This Is My Home' are an improvement from their previous incarnations. 'Short Bursts' introduces cello, trumpet and epic marching drums, making We Were Promised Jetpacks' sound far more restrained, mature and assured than ever before. 'This Is My House, This Is My Home' has been transformed into a piano led lament featuring Adam Thompson's token heartfelt vocals complimented by a slow build up of strings. 'The Walls Are Wearing Thin' is the song most in keeping with the bands previous sound, yet the build up is again shown to be patient, subtle and a lot more effective than most songs on their full-length with brass again contributing immensely to the crescendo of the song.

We Were Promised Jetpacks really demonstrate how talented and versatile a band they are. 'The Last Place You'll Look' is definitely the best work the band have done, showing restraint and depth like never before. The new sound is a direction I hope they continue to flirt with, if not completely convert to.

We Were Promised Jetpacks - This Is My House, This Is My Home (New Version)


We Were Promised Jetpacks - The Walls Are Wearing Thin


The Last Place You'll Look is released on April 12th via FatCat Records