La Dispute
Wildlife
No Sleep Records
The words ‘album of the year’ spring to mind. A stunning artistic statement, an unbelievably moving work, and perhaps even a watershed moment in the story of 21st century punk, La Dispute’s ‘Wildlife’ is many things, and ‘easy’ is not among them. This Michigan band have been one of the most remarkable outfits on the touring circuit for a few years now, and they’ve delivered a masterpiece in this, their second full-length. A combination of confessional and creative outpouring, the fourteen tracks that make up ‘Wildlife’ are quite simply brilliant, from first to last.
There’s so much to love about LD’s work on this record – the deftness, subtlety and range of their song-structures, the scope of their ambition, the originality of the album’s concept – but what shines through more than anything is their boundless passion, their conviction. Presented as a series of short stories set to music, complete with the unnamed, ever-present author’s soul-searching annotations, this could have been a conceit too far, abstract and unnatural, but it is completely believable, shocking, profound. ‘Songs’ like ‘A Letter’, ‘Edward Benz, 27 Times’ and the almost unbearably intense ‘King Park’ cut through a listener’s complacency and cynicism, impacting like a bucket of cold water to the head in their vibrancy, their almost hyper-real evocation of the business of being alive. Listen, and let your defences come down. It’s an experience that you will not forget.
Our one disclaimer: if you don’t engage with the narratives within these songs, let them in, ‘Wildlife’ will probably prove more frustrating than enlightening. Nothing else we can think of. Just listen. One of the most humane records you will ever hear, as well as one of the most harrowing, this is a work of some genius. If La Dispute never write another note (a hypothetical state of affairs that, needless to say, would suck) they’ll have already left more of a mark than most bands ever will.
Buy this album from Amazon
Review by Rob Sayce
