The Temper Trap are back and this time around, you should probably, definitely care. One hit wonders are often a bit of a stigma that attach themselves to a band. When commercial success is reached based largely upon one song, you do not need to look much further than The Temper Trap as the perfect purveyors of such an instance. ‘Sweet Disposition’ was both a help and hindrance for the band. During their early days, Conditions was bolstered phenomenally off the back of the success sending The Temper Trap sky high, there was no comedown in sight for the band until they reached the famously difficult second album. The self-titled follow-up dissolved into the mist about as quickly as the band blew up in the first instance. Therefore it is completely plausible to see why they disappeared behind the scenes for so long before returning. Aching with insecurity and pressure. It’s become a bit of common trend that 2012 spelled the end to many acts that found success in the mid-late 00s.
The Temper Trap made some bold promises when issuing the press release for Thick As Thieves. It claimed to be somewhat a return to form packed with ‘festival classics’. Fortunately for them and for their press team, it really does seem to be that. It is a contemporary facelift for the group that sees them update their sound, reflect upon themselves and find themselves now within a league occupied by the likes of Jungle, Jagwar Ma and Django Django.
It is hard to be in a band and have a sound nailed upon your head based upon an individual single. A similarity may be the crosses that were marked on doors during The Great Plague, an indicator that you are infected with one song and now lie paralysed in a bed of broken songs. It kind of outlines your every move and becomes a reference point for you to pitch everything else you write in the future, this is where The Temper Trap really struggled on their sophomore, it felt as if everything was angled towards ‘Sweet Disposition’ as if it cast this giant mould for them to place everything within.
The first single from Thick As Thieves was ‘Fall Together’ and to be honest with you, this set them aside from their previous chart success. It revitalised them and bled a new life into their music, packed with soul, energy and purpose. It seems as if setting themselves outside the music scene for such a long stint gave the band a chance to watch the world go by, wait for the leftovers from the previous scene to dissipate and then emerge dressed in a new sensibility. Ultimately, what ‘Fall Together’ outlines on first listen is a band that have grown old with their sound and pushed it into a new vein.
It may partly be down to the fact that for the first time, The Temper Trap have opted to collaborate as well as write their own material. It is a bold move for a band to do, to accept that you may need assistance but similarly, something that Iggy Pop has already show us can work wonders for an album. It has given the album a new dynamic and allows it to breathe huge choruses spliced with anthemic groove. The likes of ‘Burn’ and ‘Tombstone’ show the relentless nature of this. The production is fantastic as it angles emphasis upon the larger sounds that were plastered over the band’s earlier material whilst leaving frontman Dougy Mandate’s unique vocal howling over the top.
After spending 32 months in the studio recording Thick As Thieves, expectation could have placed the album either side of average. The exhausting process may have leant for a tiresome result however, miraculously it seems that the mixture of personalities and input involved within the process may have continued to expel life within the album. Involving the likes of producer, Malay, who has previously worked with esteemed acts such as Zayn Malik and Frank Ocean, allowed for another dynamic. The likes of ‘Lost’ that were written with Malay do not feature any sincere musical depth but serve for the purpose of being a solid pop-rock song; it incorporates everything that made Conditions such a blissful effort. The carefree nature of ‘Lost’ resides within the summer escapism that people attribute to such months, testament to the fact that it is set to be an album for the festivals.
The production on behalf of primary producer of the album, Pascal Gabriel (Goldfrapp, Marina and the Diamonds) really warrants much of the album’s credit. For what is essentially a basic guitar and drum-orientated album, the outline and definition of each instrument far surpasses what should be produced by the instruments. Take ‘Alive’ for example, it once again points towards the rapturous hedonism of Thick As Thieves but listen to how cosmic it sounds. It’s otherworldly. The pessimist I am lead me to question whether this will be replicated live, and this is something that is yet to be tested properly but if it is pulled off, this type of music should be headlining some of pop’s more mainstream events.
The album itself does not offer a lot of depth or comprehensiveness. It is normally this vanity that is often attached with this music that I find painful listening but credit to The Temper Trap on this occasion. The reflection point is obvious; album number two was too obscure, too experimental and cut them a lot of ties, probably spelling the end to their career if they were not to reverse it now. It could be said that Thick As Thieves is in fact a perfect metaphor for the industry-lead demands of music nowadays but, that is another conversation in itself, albeit an exceptionally interesting one. It seems The Temper Trap have somehow found the light on the other side of the pouring rain, much unlike many of their former peers who have slipped along the post-indie wayside. ‘Riverina’ and ‘Summer’s Almost Gone’ act as descriptions of how this album is tailored towards a sun-kissed market. In that sense it’s interesting how it is released perfectly timed for the European market yet similarly, their extensive Australian tour will not start until this coming autumn – just in time for their summer.
As musicians, this album is their saving grace. As part of an industry, it defines them and outlines them as a band that have reverted back to their roots in order to sell records. Not withstanding these facts, it is a good album. It does everything that ‘Sweet Disposition’ did and arguably furthers it, making the album itself a lot more consistent than Conditions ever was. Congratulations to The Temper Trap, they have breached the cesspit of mid-00s indie and broken through, arguably into a scene occupied by much, much bigger players.
Tom Churchill
Website: thetempertrap.com
Facebook: facebook.com/tempertrap
Twitter: twitter.com/thetempertrap