Jeremy Warmsley - Dancing With The Enemy

By writing a song about affairs between Nazi soldiers and local girls from across the areas of Europe under the 3rd Reich’s sphere of influence is always going to be a tricky issue. However, Jeremy Warmsley deals with this subject with such sensitivity and beauty. The simplistic piano melody accompanied by just drums, the occasional saxophone, and such pure vocals is absolutely fantastic. In fact, the opening few phrases of Jeremy Warmsley’s vocals have an academic Vampire Weekend-esque feel to them. A drum roll, symbolic of the more aggressive nature of the Nazis, leads into a hugely triumphant chorus (luckily lacking any hint of the Nazis’ Heil Hitler greeting). All in all, this is a beautiful song.

B-Sides ‘The Void’ and ‘My Grandfather’s Diary’ are both fantastic songs in their own right. ‘The Void’ is a slow, spacious but also swinging song with a number of blues aspects to it which shows the various sides of Warmsley’s vocals. The innocently haunting backing vocals and humming adds an extremely interesting angle to the song. As for ‘My Grandfather’s Diary’, which features some distinctly Debussy-esque piano arpeggios, builds up to an extraordinarily epic ending.

Jeremy Warmsley is an extremely unique musician. The sporadic mix of many different musical styles in his songs is very interesting indeed.