Post War Years - The Bell

Since January, Post War Years have made a herculean effort of pushing their new material to wider audiences. If you are familiar with their past work or if the last ten months have taught us anything, it is obvious that we’ve seen nothing yet. With the live rooftop EP, the ‘Glass House’ EP and a highly applauded, acid-trip music video all released in this year alone, Post War Years are no tiresome band, but a 360 degree musical concept.

It is always a surprise to hear so much talent being emitted from a visually unassuming four-piece; but what earmarks their addictively distinctive sound, such as ‘Boing’, is that with each track there is a relentless feeling that something large, ominous and terrifyingly exciting is about to come crawling and cascading over the barracks of their choruses. The heavy echo on the synths of the title track unashamedly harkens to the sounds of three decades back. Coupled with an uplifting chorus we are provided with an array of heavy snare, lasers, steal pans and howling vocals. The incredible production value is almost edible, which is why playing this EP over laptop speakers is the highest of insults.

The penultimate track, ‘Ghosts’ makes a deceptively delicate entrance with its aquatic melody line moving on top of a quiet but pulsating kick drum. Just over half way through we go down the rabbit hole and on the other side Post War Years proudly prove to us that they are the masters of accumulative sound as tearful vocals hurtle us through layers of syncopation. It is tracks like this which reveal their music to be technical and well thought out as each note at each moment is given purpose.

Lastly, ‘Pigeon’ brings us to a haunting close – elongated strings are accompanied by the repetitive lyrics “wake up…” which gently lulls us out of our pleasure stupor. Throughout the EP we have been nail-bitingly close to moments of euphoria, however we are swiftly returned to our restless former selves. In the most bluntest and basic of pleas, you cannot listen to ‘The Bell’ enough times. It is simply really really good. With their newly developed sound now carved out and crystalline, perhaps Post War Years should only ever release EPs, because under medical advisement, I don’t believe the public can physically handle the intensity of a full album.