We Grow Up
Night Kitchen
Independent


It's always nice to take a sense of pride in the music coming out locally, and from the first moments of We Grow Up's sophomore album it's pretty clear that this is one. Opener Wrote It All Down In My Diary is sugar-sweet '60s pop - harpsichord, trumpets and all. It's the perfect introduction to the group's capabilities, showcasing the magnetic singing voices of Anthony Golding and Jonathan Mortimer throughout pinpoint precise verses, choruses and a fantastic a capella section, before the song draws to a close on the back of a trumpet solo.

Later on, Mutual Friends' ending is another great example of the band's abilities as songwriters - an otherwise innocuously pretty pop song, it ends with a subtle cacophony of ever so slightly out of time instruments, giving it a wonderfully unbalanced twist. Or, try the sweet unabashed folk of Celia, before the song switches to a multi-part harmonised ending. Or the again, more simply, the sheer beauty of Actor's Show's soft spoken melancholy.

In fact, the album's only real irritant is the plucky synth strings in Office Christmas Party, which don't quite gel with the rest of the song. It's such a minor thing that it barely warrants mentioning though; it certainly doesn't take much that away from the song, and takes even less away from the album as a whole.

Because the fact is 'Night Kitchen' is an astonishingly accomplished piece of work, and one that suggests that the band are on equal footing with some of the best songwriters in the country right now. Add to that the generally outstanding performances, and it becomes obvious that We Grow Up have produced something pretty damned special, and one that deserves to be the platform from which they can reach a wider audience.

Alistair Wallis