La Dispute – Wildlife

By Tom Aylott

Oh bloody hell, music in 2011 really is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t it? No sooner had top ten lists started to mentally formulate post-festivals than the annual realisation that autumn regularly delivers a shit-tonne of amazing records arrived.

The jagged stories of LA DISPUTE‘s ‘Wildlife’ are so nightmarish in composition and subject matter that, as the pure vitriol behind the record glides effortlessly through peaks and troughs of tension, it becomes difficult to stop listening.

The big standout tracks are ‘Safer in the Forest – Love Song for Poor Michigan’, ‘Edward Benz, 27 Times’, closer ‘You and I in Unison’ and ‘St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church Blues’, but the record turns through such great movements throughout that it’s worth sitting down and taking it all in.

It’s hard to pull exactly where La Dispute‘s core influences reside on ‘Wildlife’, as the sound is very much eclectic and hard to nail down, but you can hear elements of classic rock like the Rolling Stones bubbling under the ebbs and flows of modern post-hardcore.

The “world going to shit” themes combined with genre hopping instrumental work and gritty production make it an essential listen for the tail end of the year, and you might just find it hard to keep out of a top 10 – it’s a record with an ability to grip instantly, and though it’s sad to be surprised by this, 2011 might just have produced a genre classic in its closing stages.

TOM AYLOTT

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