‘A Thousand Ships’ Album Review

A band with a deserved great name, Norwich’s Darwin and the Dinosaur display musical talent that surpass expectations with their album ‘A Thousand Ships’ engineered, mixed and mastered by Neil Kennedy at The Ranch Production House, Southampton and released March 9, 2015

Muscular yet intelligent alternative-rock runs throughout the tracks on ‘A Thousand Ships’. The song writing and delivery is full of power and deft in technical ability. Amidst the monstrous riffs and big-hitting drums there are still great swathes of melody. This is deliberate of course: ‘Riff Town Population – You’ is a tongue-in-cheek title for a huge song that shows what Darwin and the Dinosaur are all about.

‘Theories’ is another big slice of alternative-rock, as is the punishing, riff-filled ‘Making Friends with Strangers’. Yet Darwin and the Dinosaur just go straight for the jugular to show off their technical prowess. Instead their songs ebb and flow with the use of light and shade that creates music of great beauty. Moments of serenity within the crushing guitars or bellowed vocals break up the album to create flashes of beauty such as ‘Life at Sea’.
There are also a couple of moments of genuine brilliance. ‘Make Believe’ has got to be one of the finest songs of 2015. In homage to Jonah Matranga’s Gratitude vehicle, it is a straight-forward rock song executed exceptionally well. ‘Change of Heart’ is similar, but with the added bonus of brilliantly thought through and superbly performed switches of tempo and intensity.

As the British music scene continues to thrive and several bands are working to rise into the wider consciousness, there’s a good chance that Darwin and the Dinosaur could make that leap from the underground with ‘A Thousand Ships’.