The Rumble Strips have been around since at least 2004, and their debut album Girls and Weather came out in 2007. But you can be forgiven if you’ve still never heard of them. Expect that to change with the release of their new disk, the Mark Ronson-produced Welcome to the Walk Alone.
WNEW did a great studio session with the Rumble Strips last year, capturing incredible live versions of No Soul and Alarm Clock. More on that below. For now check out what people are saying about the new album, and take a look at the cool video for Only Person.
REVIEW OF REVIEWS
They fall into the ‘ambient/dream pop’ category if iTunes is anything to go by, but The Rumble Strips aren’t quite as wet as that makes them sound. Since the Devon natives came together in 2004, they’ve gone through several key phases: unsigned hopefuls, to part of a respected indie label stable (Transgressive), to the cusp of NME darlinghood and back again.
Now they join Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse and Kaiser Chiefs in the hallowed ranks of Mark Ronson producees. Again, try not to let that taint your view one way or another. If you’re expecting a lot of Ronson’s trademark horns on their second album, ‘Welcome to the Walk Alone’, you’d be right – but that’s nothing their 2007 debut ‘Girls & Weather’ didn’t have. Ronson undeniably brings a new dimension to the quartet’s indie-pop sound, and although his embellishments bring their sound eerily close to Coldplay on one or two occasions, they’ve crafted a very charming album together.
But my favourite album of the week is The Rumble Strips’ second record Welcome To The Walk Alone.
It’s a real maturation of the appealingly raw olde-tyme style of their debut with the band embracing the potential of their brass section. The stylish arrangements echo and The Last Shadow Puppets and The Divine Comedy and occasionally the songs touch on The Killers. The immediate stand-outs are Not The Only Person and Running On Empty. The whole album merits your attention.
Long may they rumble on.
TRACKLIST
1. Welcome To The Walk Alone
2. London
3. Not The Only Person
4. Daniel
5. Douglas
6. Back Bone
7. Sweet Heart Hooligan
8. Running On Empty
9. Dem Girls
10. Raindrops
11. Happy Hell
VIDEOS
BEST SHOTS
