An Awesome Wave is the debut album of English indie rock band alt-J. It was released in
May 2012 and is considered their most well-known album. It contains some of the band’s
most popular songs, including Breezeblocks, Ms and Taro.
Personally, I’ve been a casual fan of alt-J for a while, but I hadn’t listened to An Awesome
Wave in its entirety until a few days ago. But, as soon as I heard the first track, Intro, I knew
I had to write about it! An Awesome Wave is one of those albums that you absolutely have
to listen to in order, as it contains an introduction and three beautifully written interludes
that splice up the tracks.
We’ll start at the beginning, with the Intro. It begins with a beautifully soft piano melody, then
abruptly introduces guitar and drums, which reflects the overall feel of the album really
well. Alt-J is certainly not afraid to use the synth, but it really pays off and the use of distortion
makes their sound really unique, which is hard to do in the indie rock landscape.
The next song on the album is one of my favorites. Interlude I is a complete 180 from the
introduction, with no instruments except lead singer Joe Newman and backing vocalist Gus
Unger-Hamilton’s vocals. The melody is eerie and haunting, like much of alt-J’s material. It’s
only short, at a mere 1 minute and 12 seconds, but it stands out as one of the best songs on
the album. It doesn’t need intricate instrumentation, Newman and Unger-Hamilton’s vocals
blend together so well and it’s incredibly catchy.
Tesselate leans more heavily into the rock genre and contains many nods to the symbol that
represents the band’s name, ∆, (little Easter egg for mac users, to get that symbol, you press
the keys ‘alt’ and ‘J’). The lyrics of Tesselate tell the story of a love triangle, but in such a
distinctively nonsensical way that, if presented with the lyrics out of context, a person
would be able to say with certainty that they belong to alt-J. With references to The Good,
The Bad and The Ugly, the band manage to tell a somewhat cliched storyline with new
vigor. All in all, the layered, atypical instrumentation and unusual lyrics work in perfect
harmony to create a wonderful song.
Breezeblocks was one of the first alt-J songs I ever heard and remains one of my favorites,
it’s been deemed a staple for indie kids in the 2010s and it’s very easy to see why. It’s fast-
paced, upbeat, and catchy, with soaring vocals and a repetitive melody. It’s another example
of the distinct alt-J lyrics, employing an amalgamation of odd references (the eagle-eared of
you might have been able to pick out frequent references to Where the Wild Things Are) to
tell the story of a man trying to win back lost love. My favorite part of the song has to be
the round at the end. Growing up in choirs and musical theatre groups has given me an
affection for a good round, and I think they’re underutilized in mainstream music.
I’ll skip a few songs for now, down to Matilda, which is hauntingly beautiful. It starts straight
away with Newman’s vocals alone, which creates a stark contrast to the many times
throughout the album that he sings in harmony with Unger-Hamilton. Matilda isn’t as
complex in its composition as the rest of the album, with guitar and drums used primarily
but that works in favor of the song, making it even more haunting. The song was heavily
inspired by the film The Professional and even named after Natalie Portman’s character.
Ms is another song that convinced me to listen to the rest of the album. It employs a wide
range of instruments and is almost hymnal in composition. The lyrics tell the story of a failed
relationship, and the depression and grief that comes with it, but handles the subject in an
almost subliminal way, you wouldn’t be able to tell unless you really looked at the lyrics. It’s
palatable melodrama, and the light, airy instrumentation balances with that perfectly.
I’ll skip again to Taro, another seemingly nonsensical song that tells a clever story. It
somehow seamlessly blends typical British indie rock with interludes of Indian pop sounds,
which sounds like an odd combination, but works insanely well. The lyrics tell the story of a
war photojournalist called Gerda Taro, and her love interest Robert Capa. Capa was blown
up by a landmine in the first Indochina war whilst taking pictures, which is referenced many
times throughout the song. It’s a history lesson wrapped inside an indie rock song, what
more could you ask for?
The final song in the album is my personal favorite. Hand-Made is one I didn’t hear until I
listened to the album in full, and it makes me so unbelievably glad I did. It’s one of their
more clearly written songs, centering around a man fighting addiction and trying to get clean,
either for a loved one or for himself. The instrumentation is gentle and employs primarily
stringed instruments, which lends itself to the soothing atmosphere created by the song. It’s
again quite short, at 2 minutes 38 seconds, but is very impactful.
Overall, I love this album so much, and there’s no way I could have talked about every single
song, or we would be here for eons! There are definitely songs I like more than others, and
some I have to be in the mood to listen to, but to me, this album has no skips. Every song is
so well-written and composed which is very impressive for a debut album. Alt-J found their
sound and seems to be sticking with it!
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