Warmduscher – ‘Too Cold To Hold’ album review: destination, la-la land
THE SKINNY: How often can you really say that an album grabs your full attention within the opening seconds? Kicking off with the unexpected drawl of Trainspotting legend Irvine Welsh taking about a DMT trip, this perfectly sets the scene for a record so cinematic that the tales are palpable and the mind goes to fantastical places. The new Warmduscher effort, Too Cold to Hold, is an absolute treasure, and is most likely their finest release yet.
On their fifth album, Warmduscher have not worked with an outside producer, but instead bassist ‘Mr. Salt Fingers Lovecraft’ better known as Benjamin Romans-Hopcraft, and their friend Jamie Neville collaborated to bring it to life. This has seen the band hone their sound, delve even further into the hypnotic rhythms that have always been central to their approach, and, with the help of a few notable allies such as Lianne La Havas and Confidence Man’s Janet Planet, create an album that is akin to a psychedelic trip. Imagine if Cool World was an album.
There’s refined melodic splendour in store, with a host of orchestral and electronic instruments ballasting the deeply narcotic, dream-like vibe in parts, and elsewhere, this incredibly warm headiness is counterbalanced by unsettling lyrics, frontman Clams Baker Jr’s caustic delivery, and flecks of jazzy and no-wavey dissonance that come together to create a record akin to one of those trips that take a while to straighten out. Like such psychological jaunts, by the end of it, you’re glad you did it.
Too Cold to Hold is a cogent body of work; for those unfamiliar with the London group, it is the perfect way to become a fan. It’s singular, musically substantial, well-executed and keeps you on your toes, everything a great album should be. It chooses life in trying times.
For fans of: Clever narcotic dabbling, Irvine Welsh and kicking back with a couple of cold ones.
A concluding comment from a room of 100 identical Radio 6 dads: “This is absolutely crackers! It’s brilliant!”
Too Cold to Hold track by track:
Release Date: November 15th | Producer: Benjamin Romans-Hopcraft / Jamie Neville | Label: Strap Originals
‘An Introduction By Irvine Welsh’: An opener of the finest sorts; a surreal tale by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh detailing a DMT-induced out-of-body experience. It’s a perfect way to represent the sound of Too Cold to Hold and introduce the trip that is the record. [5/5]
‘Fashion Week’: Commencing with a funky groove, heady chimes, and gritty string bends, it becomes very clear that we’ve arrived in la-la land, and the drug is working. This is the start of the narcotic dream wherein Warmduscher leads us through an array of twists and turns, bouncing between melodic warmth and unsettling noise. [4.5/5]
‘Pure at The Heart’: An incredible number featuring a warm delivery from Clams and equally comforting backing vocals, it also contains the welcome vocals from Confidence Man’s Janet Planet. Perfect for taxi rides while coming down or skating stoned on a sunny day, I could listen to this on repeat. [4.5/5]
‘Top Shelf’: This stop kicks off with a driving bassline and beat. On top of it, Clams delivers another surreal tale, which takes a darker turn than what came before and features some of his best and most comical imagery, including the bit about the character living on a friend’s couch and a little kid with shit in his pants waking him up. [4.5/5]
‘Body Shock’: Arguably the best song on the record. A haunting, hypnotic rhythm featuring an Afrobeat-esque groove, multiple layers of percussion, an excellent bassline, dissonant flecks, and the moody vocals of Lianne La Havas, it’s an absolute masterwork. [5/5]
‘Cleopatras’: A bombastic number featuring the towering blasts of synths and brass and capped off by the distinct vocals Cocou Chloe, this is another moment where the trip takes a darker, more terrifying turn, as Clams and Chloe spin a strange tale about energy-sucking aliens. This is a prime example of Warmduscher’s absurd vision and excellent execution in bringing it to life. [4.5/5]
‘Immaculate Deception’: Comprised of a shuffling beat and a pub-rock, Dr Feelgood-evoking bassline, completed with Clams’s atmospheric vocals, this one also has clear twists of a noir soundtrack thanks to the anxious brass. Like every other song on the record, it’s deeply visual and, in classic Warmduscher style, takes an unexpected turn later on when the rhythm switches up, and East London MC Jeshi enters the fold. [4.5/5]
‘Out Of Body’: Another more driving effort featuring the dream-like shimmer of the xylophone, which counterbalances the punky guitar and gothic performance of the rhythm section, it typifies the nature of Too Cold to Hold. Excellently. You could say it has a campy B-movie vibe. [4.5/5]
‘Staying Alive’: A stone-cold composition. Featuring a quality bassline, a big chorus, and no end of attitude, this one is sure to go off live. [4.5/5]
‘Too Cold To Hold’: This one has the angriest delivery from Clams, juxtaposed by a brilliantly hypnotic rhythm and chorus section, in one of the most hallucinatory exhibits in this body of work. Again, Clams’s lyrics are fucking hilarious. It builds and builds until the final third takes a sledgehammer to it, and they get a bit no-wavey. [4.5/5]
‘Weeds In The Garden’: An ideal way to end the record. Bringing to mind autumnal strolling in 1960s Paris, drunken nights in New York in the 1950s and other fantasy images, this final ditty aptly brings the curtain down on what has been one hell of a ride. [4.5/5]
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