It happens every so often. You hear a song and love it immediately because of its inherent happiness – and you can do no more than have everyone you come into contact with listen to the song too, just to spread a little joy.
“5 Years Time” spearheads the release of British folk rock band Noah and the Whale’s latest album “Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down.”
The album, a mix of folk, reggae, bluegrass, Irish traditional and rock, is in general not as solid as its most popular single. But the album’s mix of sitting-on-your-front-porch party tunes and Andrew Bird-esq instrumentals make the album’s tracks some of my favorite new music.
From the first whistling tune in “5 Years Time,” you know the song is going to be a good one. Its reggae base gives the song a solid foundation while the sugary lyrics, “Oh there’ll be, love love love / Wherever you go,” give it a lovely Kimya Dawson sound, with a less-annoying tone.
Automobile company General Motors noticed the sweet beat too and is currently using “5 Years Time” as the theme song to its latest Saturn commercials. Fortunately, I don’t watch much television so my connotations of the song are yet to be tainted by shiny new vehicles.
The album flows well, with each song creating either a smooth transition or a nice contrast from the previous track. Out of the rest of the songs on “Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down,” the best I’ve found to be are “Jocasta” and “Shape of my Heart.” The latter was the first on the album to catch my attention and is the type of song you can’t play just once.
One of the unfortunate downfalls of the album is the number of the songs that start very slowly, and require a touch of appreciation and patience for the song.
That being said, “What Do You Do,” “Hold My Hand As I’m Lowered” and a few other tracks that begin slowly and intimately, are totally worth the wait as the complex instrumentals are so fine that they make fabulous studying or blast-while-working-at-residence-hall-front-desk music.
The title track on “Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down” brings out Noah and the Whale’s similar sound to The Shins. “Peaceful” is not really strong enough to lend its name to the album title, but it is not my least favorite song on the album. That award goes to “Mary.”
Regardless, the album all-in-all is one darn good compilation: catchy enough to like immediately and instrumentally sound enough to not get sick of after listening to it a few times. The music is alive, and it is begging to be played outside.
I’m just glad I have a front porch to sit on while listening to this album because the innate joy of listening to it is generally just “fun, fun, fun.”