This Comic Apocalypse

Wild Beasts “Assembly” – Hayden Thorpe has one of the most bewildering voices in contemporary music, in part because he himself sounds utterly bewildered each time he opens his mouth. He comes across like a person who has somehow crossed over into a better, more romantic version of the world in which even the grime and the guts and the gore have a whimsy and charm that seem out of place, and out of time. Thorpe sounds particularly enthused on “Assembly,” a jaunty little romp that indulges in silly slapstick while painting a portrait of an eccentric stumbling through a decaying, decadent society. As with nearly all of their songs to date, the band hit upon a delicate, magical balance of elegance and shabbiness, especially as Thorpe’s voice wavers between masculine and feminine extremes like an old-timey hobo convinced that he’s Maria Callas. (Click here to buy it via the Wild Beasts official site.)