Noah and The Whale
The continued maturation of Noah and the Whale has been a pleasing thing to follow — from the joyous burst of their debut, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down which spawned the sun, sun, sun single ‘5 Years Time’, through the lovelorn sobriety of The First Days of Spring, it now reaches a fruition on Last Night on Earth. Their third album possesses a curiosity and a vibrancy, a romance and a restlessness, and a clutch of songs - Tonight’s The Night, L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. among them - that mark out Charlie Fink as not just one of the best songwriters of his generation, but also as a supremely gifted storyteller. As the leaders of the same British folk-rock scene that spawned Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, and Emmy the Great, with this richly poetic album they appear to stand perhaps a little taller and a little broader than their peers.