Local Natives - Breakers

Several factors come between liking a song and falling hopelessly in love with it. These can range from a personal experience you might have had that ties in with a few choice lyrics (Taylor Swift fans will know what I’m on about, here), or a spine-tingling string section, or a triumphant coda where the instruments come to life and all hell breaks loose (the finest recent example of this might be Grizzly Bear’s ‘Yet Again’). But rarely will it be the use of a hi-hat.

Strangely, from a personal point of view, the hi-hats do the trick here. Drummer Matt Frazier has been taught a thing or two by The National’s Aaron Dessner, who takes production duties for Local Natives’ second album, the follow up to 2010’s ‘Gorilla Manor’ LP. At the heart of lead single ‘Breakers’’ tension and build is some glorious hi-hat action. With every propulsion of drums, another hair on the back of your neck will stand to attention.

A lot of people are saying this song follows the Local Natives formula; it takes the good stuff from an occasionally patchy debut LP and piles it together in one grand arrangement. That’s not really the case. Kelcey Ayer reaches his tenderest point at the song’s opening; all quivering and heartfelt. Then comes the customary hi-hat build, as we’ve so clearly fallen for. But there’s also a point in the mid-section, where all of a sudden the instruments seemingly escape the respective member’s grip, collapsing into a faint ripple effect of chiming, clashing musicianship. So it’s not just the hi-hats, no matter how good those damn hi-hats might be: In ‘Breakers’, there’s plenty to fall in love with.