Wild Beasts announce they are calling it a day

I see the excellent UK indie band 'Wild Beasts' have announced on Twitter that they have decided to call it a day.

No specific reason is given; but it is a great shame, as they are one of the few really good contemporary bands going at the moment. They have left a fine legacy of albums. I was a little less keen on their last one 'Boy King' but it was still a good album and well worth a listen. Its 3 predecessors 'Present Tense', 'Smother' and 'Two Dancers' are absolutely superb, especially 'Present Tense'.

Hopefully they all will stay in music and work on some new interesting projects. Perhaps they felt that the band had run its course and they were in danger of stagnating and getting into a cycle of diminishing returns. Nevertheless it is a loss to music as they had a great chemistry and sound.

Bit of their statement, below.

“The four of us have decided, for our own reasons and in our own ways, that it is now time to leave this orbit. We’re care takers to something precious and don’t want to have it diminish as we move forwards in our lives.”

 

Wow! Saw it on Instagram couple of hours ago. Really unexpected.
Their last album charted in Top-10 in UK, they were steadily touring and always looked like one of those bands from a small town who grow up together and evolve together. Hayden was announcing a number a low-key solo gigs here and there though.

 

I remember seeing them for the first time by accident at a festival when I was 14 at a tiny stage with about 7 people watching and thinking they were the new Smiths, their first album Limbo, Panto remains my favourite - kind of jumped ship after Smother - part of me thinks it was the right time to call it quits. Maybe I need to give their latest efforts another try

 

Wow, I listened to Present Tense for the first time just last week - the only album of theirs I have heard so far. (Though it definitely made me want to check out their other albums).

This reminds me of when The Maccabees announced their split just a few months after I started listening to them.

It seems like both bands wanted to go out on top.

 

Wow, such a shame they decided to disband. They had a really cool sound going - and super catchy songwriting.

Really liked Present Tense (awesome album), and Boy King was pretty good too. Still need to check out their earlier albums.

 

Strange. But they might have their reasons. Bit of a shame since I think they made some excellent albums. Even though I haven't cracked "Boy King" yet....

 

Disappointing! I was really hoping they'd redeem themselves after that last, heinously bad album of theirs, Boy King. I found Boy King so appalling that I didn't even buy it. I listened to it via Spotify a few times when it came out, and was really put off by it.

Wild Beasts came onto my radar around the time of Two Dancers, which I still think is their best album. I love Smother too - a lovely, haunting album. I saw them live when they did a US tour between those two albums, back in early 2010, I believe, and it was a wonderful show. (I like a few songs off their debut, FWIW, but I never fully warmed to it.)

However, I always felt something seemed slightly amiss with Present Tense. I liked it okay, but it seemed as if on roughly half the album they were substituting a lack of ideas with a kind of forced, difficult artiness. Something about that album always just seemed a bit off to me.

But Boy King, in my humble opinion, sounded like the band had adopted this stripped-down, generically pop sound to mask a continued dearth of good ideas. I was curious to see if this was just some temporary rut or short-lived, ill-advised artistic diversion. I wanted to see them rebound. It's sad that they'll be ending on such a terrible album, far from the top of their game. But even so, it's also sad to have one less contemporary band to like, with future releases to anticipate, etc.

 

I didn't think Boy King was anywhere near as bad as others make it out to be. But it was a clear change of direction and I would not be surprised if disagreement over the band's musical future is the reason for deciding to disband.

 

One development with Wild Beasts that I found puzzling was how the guitars kind of got sidelined on Present Tense and then even more so on Boy King. They had a really cool, unique guitar sound, with lovely, often arpeggiated melodies filtered through a variety of delay effects, which I thought was one of the most appealing aspects of their sound, and is part of what made Two Dancers and Smother so great. But they kind of abandoned it, yet never really managed to fill the void with anything quite as captivating. (And with Boy King, they really dumbed down their sound, IMHO.)

 

A real shame, I thought Smother and Present Tense were utterly stunning albums. Like several other posters, Boy King never really clicked for me - not a bad album by any means, just pretty forgettable. But they were great when I saw them live, and I'll certainly miss them.

 

I would echo a lot of the comments on here about Boy King; it’s a weak album and not a patch of their previous offerings. I have all their albums and I’ve seen them live a few times and they’re excellent. I believe they’re doing a farewell tour and will more than likely see them for one last time.

 

Agree with most of the posts above - I think after Present Tense they probably though they were stuck in a rut and looked for a new direction. Personally I didn't like it either. They peaked at Smother IMHO

Limbo Panto 4/10
Two Dancers 8/10
Smother 10/10
Present Tense 8/10
Boy King 4/10

 

I agree entirely that the sidelining of the guitar was a real shame - I found Present Tense empty and bland

 

Seen them at least once on every tour since Two Dancers. A great band and it seems such a shame to end like this... 'End Come Too Soon' indeed...

 

Wow.... 4/10 for the debut? Need to check out "Boy King" again, bought it recently when the deluxe was suddenly dirt cheap but so far only have played it once.

 

I thought i was being generous there.

 

Wild Beasts have probably been my favourite band over the last ten years. Personally, I love their debut, Limbo Panto, and both Two Dancers and Smother are also excellent.

However, I was disappointed with Present Tense. They decided to bring different producers on board and the new direction saw them replace the lovely guitar parts with anodyne electronics. As a casual Radiohead fan, I thought they made a successful transition with Kid A when they embraced electronics, whereas Wild Beasts failed. Theirs was a more commercial sound that simply wasn't innovative and the lovely melodies were now largely absent. Unfortunately, they drifted further down this path with the even more radio friendly Boy King which left me cold.

Still, they delivered three great albums that I will derive much listening pleasure from and I thank Wild Beasts wholeheartedly for that.

 

Shame. I love all their albums, Present Tense being my favorite. I love Boy King as well. I listened to them from their very first single right to the end so this hits me pretty hard. If The Veils pack it in my list of favorite bands will be close to negligible.

 

Very insightful article which explains A LOT.

Wild Beasts: This Is The End, My Friends

 

Shame, debut was superb - if that was the the one with hooting and howling one. love that album.

 

Hooting & Howling featured on their second album, Two Dancers.

 

That’s the one I love

 

This friday!

Hayden Thorpe – 'Diviner' review

 

Oooh thanks - had no idea this was coming!