Following in the footsteps of such cerebral brit-rockers as The Rakes, Maxïmo Park and Bloc Party come The Maccabees. They’re a Brighton five-piece who take their name from the Old Testament. Which is quite ironic considering how bleeding edge “Now” they are supposed to be.
Colour It In is an album of affable, small-screen indie-rock, in which personal dilemmas are magnified and become subjects of epic importance. Relationships with the fairer sex prove particularly vexing for The Maccabees. The vigorous emotional workout of ‘X Ray’ alludes to women’s inscrutability. What motivates men is, however, all too apparent. “Sees the tongue kept in my cheek, my conscience leak. My empty heart hole,” goes the song. The message is clear: love hurts, love scars, love wounds.
Orlando Weeks’ vocal performance – stretched out vowels and guttural splurges – is captivating throughout. Even when he’s ostensibly singing about something as everyday as swimming, ‘Latchmere’, he manages to imbue the material with a weighty weirdness.