Well, I laughed in the face of Dan when he asked Alex, Ben and I to come with him to watch Noah and the Whale. While I'm not sad I missed it as I might never have discovered Frank Turner if I left the NME Tent went to the Main Stage, I do regret making fun of this group so much. I judged way too soon on one crappy song and couldn't even imagine they'd make such beautiful little pop-folk songs. Well when I say that it sounds as if I'm in love with the album, far from it, its pretty good background music but it doesn't really grip me like the artists I love do. Still I judged Noah and his pet Whale before giving them a proper listen and for that I can only apologise.
As I said Noah make a very pretty song, they know how to make the listener tap their foot or sway to the music but I didn't ever find myself being gripped by a song. I feel that this is down to the vocalist, in other folkish music that I listen to (such as Bob Dylan and Frank Turner) I find that their voices are what make me think 'hold on let's listen to what he's got to say'. The singer of Noah has a nice enough voice that goes along with the music very well, but in this case I believe that is a negative. Dylan is frankly a poor singer but its so brash it makes me listen to the lyrics. This just doesn't happen in The First Days of Spring.
I think that the instrumentals and the orchestra are a great addition to the album. They really pick it up and it sounds really exciting. This part of the album is so good because it took me completely by surprise and really shows the great musicianship of the band, not to mention their creativity. Another stand out track on the album is Stranger, even though I was a bit annoyed that the pace of the album slowed down again I found this song to be pretty compelling, something that I've found most of the other tracks lacked.
The First Days of Spring is a nice album. It's a good piece of easy listening for a day when I've got a bad hangover or something but its far from one of my favourite albums. 3/5
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