The Beat Surrender

We’ve celebrated the delights of Ardent John for a good while now on this site and it’s nice to see the band finally releasing their debut album and hopefully opening themselves up to a wider audience with a bit more exposure.

On The Wire (out now through Slow Train Records) is a miserabilists joy from start to finish, while it does have some uplifting moments the mood of the album is fairly sombre and like a lot of great music over the years, is all the better for it.

The album opens in unusual style with the haunting acapella of All That We Need, gradually instrumentation sneaks it’s way in to the background and without realising how you have a full blown track on your hands with maudlin strings to complete it.

Open Road has that same understated charm about it that you get with Doves, seeping into your head slowly and without being too obvious, yet in many ways it’s a gloriously rich track. Jangly guitars make a welcome appearance on tracks like Fleeting Moments and Where All The Paths Lead.