Rock’n’Roll Survivor

Noah and The Whale’s third album sounds American. Not a big surprise to me who always thought they were American. One half of the band is just too good-looking and the other half too hairy to be British. In my fantasies they belonged to some ramshackle frat house near Atlanta where you’d be tripping on pizza boxes and guitars in every room. And what’d ya know, all this time it’s just been 5 miles between Charlie Fink and me and not 5000 as I imagined. *sigh*. Life hasn’t been a bed of roses for our Twickenham troubadours of late. Fink went through a painful break-up with Laura Marling, (who  jumped into the arms of Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons), then some dipshits stole all the band’s gear from their trailer at the Manchester Club Academy gig in September 2009. But now the sun is breaking through and the new  single L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. infectiously  rolls on with the approaching spring. The song floates on so smoothly it would be ace as a road trip anthem. Check it:  You’ve got the windows rolled down, warm breeze ruffles through your hair and the open road extends before you like a grey snake being swallowed up byt the horizon.  Then you hit that dial and it’s you and the Whalies, gliding along until the darkness overtakes the skyline.