“a rhythmically driven powerhouse of a debut, laden with cleverly-disguised pop melodies” –Drowned In Sound“Howling emotion and cavernous guitar sound” – The AV Club“A potent mixture of power and vulnerability” – Tiny Mix Tapes
Watch: “Quiet Little Voice” official video via YouTube
Long a sought after collector’s item, We Were Promised Jetpacks’ debut LP, These Four Walls, had a scant US vinyl release that appeared only as imports in 2009. Now the album, full of explosive energy and knife-edge tension, packed with a bounty of fans’ live favorites; is returned to vinyl for a domestic US pressing!
Opening with a lone guitar line that itself has all the momentum of entire genres crammed into a single set of chords, We Were Promised Jetpacks’ These Four Walls signifies a debut album that has the sort of peerlessness and potential to stand as a mainstay and luminary of indie music in the 21st century.
The band’s youthful energy (their average age at the time was 21) explodes thunderously as colossal choruses fall unfailingly into place. Every space is filled, tension bristling achingly in Adam Thompson’s vocal delivery as the rest of the band crashes around him with a perfect balance of force and harmony. The romanticism and accessibility of a pure pop sensibility is never hidden too deep. Both “Roll Up Your Sleeves” and “Quiet Little Voices” capture this beautifully and immediately. The product of Ken Thomas’ (Sigur Ros, Cocteau Twins, David Bowie etc.) studio mastery and Peter Katis’ (Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad, The National etc.) mixing, the recording of These Four Walls was almost entirely live, with only minimal overdubs, and the band members’ collected passion and intuition is translated into a pure, precise form, at once powerful and delicate.
WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS TOUR DATES
02 Ships With Holes Will Sink
03 Roll Up Your Sleeves
04 Conductor
05 A Half Built House
06 This Is My House, This Is My Home
07 Quiet Little Voices
08 Moving Clocks Run Slow
10 Keeping Warm
11 An Almighty Thud
