The Bank Holidays - Sail Becomes a Kite

2 September 2010 by Max Easton

'Sail Becomes a Kite' is the second album by WAMI award winning Perth quartet, The Bank Holidays. With soaring melodies across intricately layered atmospheres, The Bank Holidays have crafted a fantastic second effort with all the hallmarks of today's indie-pop kings as Max Easton writes.

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From the second half of last decade onwards, one of the most fashionable things to do in indie music proved to lie in churning out multiple vocal harmonies for acapella styled choral moments treated with a thick dose of reverb. Names like Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear are some of the most well known proponents of the technique and with each of these releases finding success, it's starting to become more and more widespread. So, with every band and his singing dog churning this stuff out lately, you'd be forgiven for pushing the next iteration off to the side. Except that in some cases, an album taking a cue from other artist's work lands in your lap and manages to charm rather than irritate. Sail Becomes a Kite by Perth outfit The Bank Holidays is one such album, exhibiting a warm and interest that has the ability to turn a smile on a cynic.

If that cynic just so happens to be you, then you're gonna have to come to terms with a couple of things first. A lot of these songs will sound familiar. James Crombie on male lead vocals, doesn't so much tip his hat to The Shins' James Mercer as he does mail him a package with a collection of his favourite headwear. Likewise, the vocals of Nat Carson and Bekk Crombie are at times channelling that of Emily Haines and Sarah Blasko, a comparison that really, is hard to see in a negative light. Further, moments of Grizzly Bear and Band of Horses appear all across the album, but are broken by tinges of 50's and 60's Rock n Roll influences from Buddy Holly to The Beach Boys. So while it regularly harks back to sounds of artists present, it does tweak itself with sounds of artists past, creating an homage to and merger of a swathe of musical stylings to wrap a package that carries a unique appeal. Just like a filthy limerick rhyming Exeter with sex at her, it's one of those times where it sounds so good that you just don't care a shit where the inspiration was pinched from.

Highlights like Thereabouts (with a backing vocal moment so freakishly similar to James Mercer that I was continually referring to liner notes and the web to find his guest vocal credit) make up the sunnier flavour the Bank Holidays are best known for, while the plucked odyssey Particles (featuring an intro uncannily identical to that of Grand Salvo's 'Chimney') is one of the most avertly choral and darker moments, not without the warmth that trickles through the album's entirety. The gorgeous Without It also impresses in the sublime vocal treatment and simpler arrangement, lying in converse to much of the album that features walls of thriving and evolving layers. The end result of all this  is an album that leaves you incredibly satisfied. There's no doubt that much of this sound is lifted from their large list of inspirations, but it's of high enough quality for me to pull hypocrite and say that its lack of originality doesn't matter...it just sounds too good.

The Bank Holidays have delivered a superb record that will no doubt sit as a daunting benchmark for the rest of their career, one of which is no doubt set to blossom off the back of this release. If you've been reading this with a thought bubble stewing out your ear reading 'ooh, I like Grand Salvo/The Shins/etc' then you've got yourself a new play mate. Sail Becomes a Kite is a great album that, without all the other releases that have already achieved the same thing this year, would go down alongside Beach House's Teen Dream as one of 2010's most loved indie records. 

Sail Becomes a Kite by The Bank Holidays is out now on Lost & Lonesome.

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