The comedian Nick Revell once performed a show based on the premise of exploring birdsong. It was hilarious, funny enough to remember decades later. The premise was that beneath the beautiful songs were base emotions. If you understood what the songs were about you would be driven mad by the mixture of relationships, territoriality, romance, all the things birds sing about. As such, Exploring Birdsong seems like the ideal name for a band. Because, of course, it’s how birds express themselves; Communication through beauty. That seems like a great way to define their debut album ‘Every House We Built’.
Discussing the record’s sound is quite difficult without mentioning the idea of genre collapse. Genres are basically categories for discussing music. They’re elastic and difficult to define, especially after the late 90s when the boundaries between genres became increasingly blurred. Once nu-metal hit the mainstream, it became difficult to describe what sound a band was pursuing or separate what a mainstream sound might be. In effect, it can feel like metal despite displaying none of its characteristics. Hence, ‘Every House We Built’ is difficult to classify. Mostly it’s a series of lush soundscapes that border on soft rock, often it’s the kind of ballad you might find on a film soundtrack but occasionally it’s heavy enough to give Sleep Token a run for their money. Sometimes it’s all these things combined. However, it’s always coherent, thoughtfully assembled and, if you allow yourself to be swept along, breathtaking. A good point of comparison is Within Temptation or perhaps Delain (or again, Sleep Token) but because the sound is allowed to shift and evolve you might also find yourself thinking of Tori Amos or even Whitney Houston.
‘Archipelago’ gently eases you into their sound, beginning like a gentle wave rushing up the shore and then breaking against the rocks. The sound is rich but uncluttered and deep without being too unfocused. It’s a fantastic opening, kicking the record to life while establishing its beauty and sense of scale. It also gives you a taste of Lynsey Ward’s incredible talents.
Ward is a member of Espera, the vocal trio famous as Sleep Token’s backing band. Obviously, you don’t get to be part of a vocal trio if you aren’t a great a singer, but her actual talent is writing great vocal parts. However the album is far more than a showcase for her abilities, it’s a rich and affecting journey with just enough dirt under its talons to ensure you don’t wriggle out of its grip.
The overall sound is based around piano but they’re not afraid of guitars either leading to some surprisingly heavy songs. At its most straightforward ‘42’ is expressed in the form of hard rock and the metal-adjacent ‘You Like It Best When It Hurts’ is built around a chugging guitar sound. ‘Romanticise’ features such a massive breakdown that’s so crushing it threatens to split the song in two. However these statements of power sit comfortably together. Each song is a clear expression of an idea, fleshed-out but also adhering to the rule ‘Less is more’ so they sound lush and lived-in without becoming indistinct. This is further enhanced by the crisp sound mix which gives each instrument its own space and ensures none of the little details get lost.
The album isn’t shy of slower, more atmospheric songs like ‘Arrhythmia’ and ‘Cartography’ which dwell on the beauty of Ward’s voice and use soft strings enhance her melodies. However, the album’s middle section dips its toes into keyboard-laced power ballads on songs like ‘I _ You’ and ‘Spy In The House Of Love’ allowing her to belt out some big choruses, giving it a slight change of pace and grand sense of momentum. This sets the stage for ‘You Like It Best When It Hurts’ to sweep in, a powerful, arresting apogee.
As you expect with a debut, there is a certain explorative feel to the album, where ideas push songs like ‘The Warning’ and ‘You Like It Best When It Hurts’ slightly outside the overall shape. It’s a more streamlined version of the ideas they played with on their previous EPs and gives the album a contoured outline but with a clear vision holding it together it’s never enough to break the coherence.
As the title suggests, ‘Every House We Built’ is a record about looking back and the melancholy found in forgotten structures. It’s an exploration of the choices that leave people as islands. It’s about romance and territory, all those things we mentioned that birds sing about. The lyrics repeatedly refence the difference between ‘houses’ and ‘homes’ and the words are chosen carefully so they capture both a feeling and have mellifluous flow. Notably the opening song ‘Archipelago’ and closer ‘Meadowlands’ engage with the same ideas and phrasing making the album into a complete story arc.
If you’re looking for highlights, they include the powerful single ‘You Like It Best When It Hurts’, the dance flavoured ‘Romanticise’ and the incredible ‘Footprints’ which is a slow, thoughtful piece that drifts on soft “Oooo” sounds. However, each song has its own personality and is intoxicating in its own way, be it the gentle drip-drop of the title track or the crushing stampede of ‘The Warning’ it is always making an effort to draw you in and leave you hanging on every moment. It’s the kind of record you find yourself holding your breath through each unfolding chapter, hoping that each will be as good as the last, and it is.
‘Every House We Built’ is as achingly beautiful as a nightingale welcoming the morning. It’s a breathtaking debut album. Highly recommended.
IAN KENWORTHY
Crying Steel can arguably claim to be one of Italy’s first heavy metal bands, with roots running all the way back to 1982. They didn’t drop their first album until 1987, and it took them until 2007 to release a follow-up, but true steel never rusts. I 
