William The Conqueror
Maverick Thinker CHRYSALIS
Five years ago, as a modestly successful singer-songwriter, Ruarri Joseph sat outside a Scottish pub, stared at his own gig poster and “heard my younger self sniggering at me, really disappointed at what I’d become”. The three-piece band born from that flash of clarity has proved more than a rebound, and this third album is something to hear.
Joseph is an odd fish as a frontman, more spoken-word drawler than singer as such, on minimal moments like Fiction and Suddenly Scared (24 Storeys High). Yet it works brilliantly, whether that conversational vocal is threading through the robotic verse of wiggy indie-blues The Deep End or Alive At Last’s messy jangle of a chorus. On Wake Up and Reasons he warms up nicely, leading a pair of crackling thrash-’em-ups that recall a harier Hotel Yorba. Meanwhile, he floors us completely with the beautiful, brittle strum of Quiet Life and the title track’s poignant excavation of the past (‘Believe it or not, I was the picture of health once’). ■■■■■■■■■■