Tilly & the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels

I always knew there were many parts to Tilly & the Wall but I had never actually bothered to go past a superfluous flirt with them on Triple J’s airwaves as I mindlessly drove to work.

My mistake.

What I now know is that they've played with The Faint, they've been on David Letterman & those who have the chance to see them at Splendour in the Grass are more than lucky!

I’ve given the album a good few month’s spin and what I got was some kind of hybrid which told me stories like The Blow do and left me euphoric like Polyphonic Spree do. Their energy is unmistakably infectious and the percussive tour de force that runs throughout upbeat moments like “Rainbows in the dark” and “Urgency” really set a vivacious tone for the rest of the album. By the time the Red Army march of “Bad Education” rolls around, Tilly & the Wall have won me over and I give into the insanity.

However the kind of unrivaled euphoria that inspires awkward dancing is quickly taken away and the tempo takes an abrupt gear shift. Bottoms of Barrels dips toward the slower songs quite early. I know I like the slower moments but I’m not sure if tracks like “Lost Girls” & “Love Song” might have been better left as a moving climax to the dynamo of what came before it.

After just watching a special on Fidel Castro, I feel as if “Sing songs along” is the kind of track that sparks a revolution. Not necessarily an oppressive socialist movement like that of the Cuban one, but I mean maybe if the Cubans had Tilly & the Wall, their revolution would have been a whole lot more flowers and good times and a whole lot less “we need subsidies from the Soviets because we’ve run out of sugar to sell”.

They preach to the converted quite well, lyrically quite sophisticated yet they are still able to get their point across. Tilly & the Wall certainly are able to get a lot across in just 10 songs. However I think what has grabbed me about this album that previously hasn’t with Tilly & the Wall is that while only 10 songs, very few go under 4 minutes long and their intentions are really able to wash over you.

Now I realise throughout I’ve made many communist analogies and by no means are Tilly & the Wall in anyway communist at all. More so it has to do with what I've been reading about of late (No, I am not socialist either, I vote Liberal not Labor). But for me personally, when I listen to this, it takes me to Europe around the middle of the 20^th Century when revolution was everywhere and the hope of an exciting new world to follow.

However, unlike the new world communism delivered, I am thinking the new world according to Tilly & the Wall is going to be all sunshine & lollypops.

Myspace: Tilly & the Wall