Bambara - Birthmarks

While providing fans with the potential of entertaining hours diving down rabbit holes, it’s important that a record with lore - a narrative thread around which the songs are constructed, a smidgen less overwrought than a full-on concept – is able to stand alone, to please equally well without knowledge of, or interest in, its overall story. That ‘Birthmarks’, this fifth album from Bambara, has a detailed narrative, is unsurprising: literal centre point ‘6’ is wholly cinematic, a brooding, ominous take on film noir soundtracks. Similarly, the sonic palette – extending from glittery ‘80s pop synths (‘Face Of Love’) to electronic industrial clamour (‘Dive Shrine’) – offers a clearly grimy, back alley aesthetic to proceedings, even without knowledge of the record’s genesis (a decades-long saga taking cues from Southern Gothic, we’re told).

On the flip side, without the literary cues being on show, there’s somewhat of a jarring effect as the record staggers between styles; the menacing high-pitched note that pierces the rumbling bass of ‘Holy Bones’ hints at danger, but comes met with an underwhelming chorus. The anger of ‘Letters From Sing Sing’ finds neither resolution nor catharsis, while conversely the melancholy croon on ‘Because You Asked’ – think somewhere between The National’s Matt Berninger and Nick Cave – is almost blink-and-you’ll miss it. And opener ‘Hiss’ – wholly unintentionally, but a notable coincidence nonetheless – introduces itself curiously similarly to the cover of Phil Collins’ ‘In The Air Tonight’ that soundtracks a current David Beckham-featuring underwear advert. Barely-clothed ex-footballers aside, knowing this is a series of characters weaving in and out offers context; without this, much of ‘Birthmarks’ instead appears confusing, unable to find its groove. In essence, not one for those who actively avoid spoilers, perhaps.