Released: 04/05/09

Boiling an egg is a hard trick to master; more often then not it’s either too runny or under cooked. Even though you have timed it according to the cookbook, you can never tell what yolky texture is lurking beneath that opaque shell. The perfect solider dipping egg is hard to come across.

Wall Of Arms, the second album from indie funksters The Maccabees, is the perfect soldier dipping egg. Enriched with frothy textures and gurgling bites, the five-piece please our hungry taste buds. Love You Better is the album’s opening track which uses clever lyrics and simple repetition to crack us open. As we move through the eleven songs we become the ‘soldier’, dipping our ears into something worthy of an art gallery.

The album’s shell is a fabulous piece of artwork. Colorful and pretentious, it seems to be ironically tackling the stereotypes pompous critics usually paint bands with. However, the shell’s ambiguity confuses me, as every time I look at it I seem to change my mind; is it a photograph of the band? Or is it a painting? Or have the famous five been inducted into Madame Tussauds? Whatever the answer is and maybe there isn’t one, this cover does well to stand out among its neighbours in the CD rack.

37 minutes and 20 seconds of pure knee clapping thuggery. And while through the duration of this album you are plunged under boiling water, that sensation is no pain. This album transforms you into a happy, runny egg also where it’s easy to recognise who has been listening to it too, as Bristol becomes mobbed with lots of dancing eggs. Forget Swine Flu, this is the latest trend.

Orlando’s voice threads each song together, with a sort of sensitivity one can relate to. If this album has you crying out for more, catch them on their UK tour, where their onstage charm will gives you butterflies.

“If you’ve got no kind words to say [about this album] you should say nothing more at all.”

www.themaccabees.co.uk

Kayleigh Cassidy