We Have Band - WHB

Good things come to those who wait, or so the saying goes. We would certainly agree with that. We hoped that this London trio’s debut full-length would surface sooner rather than later, but the wait’s almost at an end. The record, ‘WHB’, is highly anticipated in certain circles, and rightly so, because its creators’ output has been nothing less than stellar so far. Now, finally, We Have Band have album.

Does it deliver on the promise that such tracks as ‘Hear It In The Cans’ and ‘Oh!’ did? Certainly - and there’s more. While the three-piece (Darren Bancroft and husband-and-wife Thomas and Dede W-P) have admittedly taken a while to find their ‘sound’, they have struck gold at long last. ‘WHB’ is cohesive, while at the same time quite diverse.

The band have said that while the record has its poppier moments, there are darker shades hidden within, and we see where they’re coming from. ‘Piano’ and ‘Buffet’ make for an unsettling opening pair. The latter’s two-note guitar intro gives a nod to the group’s post-punk leanings, before settling in to something like a moodier Bloc Party crossed with Joy Division.

Then, in about as complete a contrast as you could ask for, we are thrown into the synth stabs and rushing percussion of ‘Divisive’. With an anthemic, gang-vocals chorus of, ‘We’re all divisive / You take me out this way’, the song (that some would consider aptly named) points to the diversity at the heart of ‘WHB’.

By the time the album gets to one of its highlights, ‘How To Make Friends’ (which comes coasting in on a hook that even Snow Patrol would kill for), we’ve been treated to the house-influenced ‘Love, What You Doing?’ and the razor-sharp guitar-driven ‘Oh!’. What follows is what could pass for a stadium-worthy electro-indie track. Its chorus reaches for the stratosphere, the focal point of an uplifting four minutes that shows that We Have Band can hop between genres with the best of them.

The trick is again repeated with another three-song run. The handclap-laden ‘Hear It In The Cans’ comes either side of ‘WHB’’s dancefloor-ready lead single ‘Honeytrap’ and the decidedly darker ‘Centrefolds and Empty Screens’, which exhibits a clear Talking Heads influence with its introspective lyrics: ‘You were warned what was happening, but you still fall short / Can’t separate from the smiling face / Can’t separate from the warm embrace’. There’s even a little bit of Editors in there.

It’s not often that the group go for quirkiness, but they indulge themselves with the fractured, disjointed ‘You Came Out’, which finds Dede taking lead vocals, to superb effect. This is followed with the album’s title track, on which We Have Band give themselves over entirely to their electro side, and produce what can only be described as a breathtakingly intense three minutes.

‘Hero Knows’, the album’s closer, is the other stadium-ready track here, rounding the album out in style. Here, Darren and Dede trade vocals, as the song builds to a pulsing, pounding finish.

While there are poppy moments here, ‘WHB’ is quite an intense affair when you look at the bigger picture. It is somehow appropriate, then, that the record closes with the words: ‘Please don’t wish away the dark days / They’re the ones that make it all worthwhile’. This album can inspire quite the mixture of emotions, among which is sheer awe. This is an assured, confident debut, the sound of a band who seem to have much more experience than they do. We Have Band, then. They have album. They have talent. They have given us something rather extraordinary.