Howling Bells – The Loudest Engine

Recruiting The Killer’s bassist, Mark Stroermer, to produce Howling Bell’s newest album ‘The Loudest Engine’ appeared a risky strategy. On one hand Juanita Stein and her fellow Australians could have gleamed some of ‘Hot Fuss’’s excellence of execution but the danger was that the toxic mediocrity of other Killers works could set in. The evidence would suggest those doubts were at least slightly unfair.

As much as Juanita’s voice guarantees a sexy sway to proceedings, that seductive silhouette sometimes hides the fact that Howling Bells have pushed much further from their safety zone than their first two albums would lead you to expect. Flirting consistently with the unhinged psychedelia of newer Queens of the Stone Age, thankfully casting aside the obvious self-indulgence, and the confident stomp of The Black Keys, Howling Bells suggest many parallel tracks to the stylings of their first two albums.

The album starts with the inviting trademark riffs but in truth first song ‘Charlatan’ fades at its chorus, a mistake the second track ‘Into The Sky’ keenly avoids with a fantastic rafters-shaking peak that seems equal amounts ‘Low Happening’ (agreed by many as the bands best song to date) and QOTSA’s ‘3 & 7s’. Third track ‘Wilderness’ ends with a chaotic 70s breakdown, ushering in a softer mid-section that interests without enthralling. Having reached the midpoint of the album, ‘The Loudest Engine’ offers up its most attractive proposition; ‘The Faith’. A spiralling psychedelic jaunt, held together by Stein’s swoon and haunting background “Oohs”. Title track ‘Loudest Engine’ is almost the seal of completion for this new style, afterwards Stein ably attempts Kate Bush style vocals for ‘Gold Suns, White Guns’ a celestial dreamy affair which best showcases the clever instrumentation of the band. The album ends slowly and elegantly retreating mysteriously back into the haze.

I can’t imagine Death Valley would be the perfect site for a smoky bar and its brooding live rock and roll band but what is easy to imagine is this guise of Howling Bells filling that unlikely role. They may well still be making the odd misstep but with their newfound experimentation and what’s becoming a formidably reliable reputation it’s becoming ever harder not to forgive them. Gaining an arsenal of new moves, but not losing their softer touch has enabled Howling Bells to make an album more varied and rewarding. They can still brood, they can still bark and now more ferociously than ever Howling Bells can bite.