DIVORCE ‘DRIVE TO GOLDENHAMMER’: HOW TO GLUE A PAINTBRUSH TO A GIBSON
ALBUM REVIEW | DIVORCE – DRIVE TO GOLDENHAMMER by Gracie Erskine
Winding peaks and sumptuous valleys seem a complementary landscape to backdrop the serenely chaotic debut album from theatrically folk, genre ninjas Divorce. The Nottingham quartet emerged in 2022 and since have brought an array of sonically rich, obscure themed and hard to ignore EP’s and singles.
Drive To Goldenhammer is a fictional catalyst that places its listener somewhere through America in a 4×4 pickup merging along with roadside waifs and strays. First pitstop is ‘Antarctica’, opening as a beautiful symphony of vocal harmonies. Like a lost addition to an A24 film soundtrack, it’s a beautiful folk inspired number – imagine giving Joni Mitchell a drum machine.
The albums strength really lies in the first half, with its richer mastered sounds. ‘Lord’ takes ‘lo-fi’ and actually makes it sound good. It’s layered in rich, wizarding strangles of sounds. Twanging guitars, glazed with heaven dragging slides and soul oozing synths- it’s a spread for the ears. Opening the door on ‘Fever Pitch’ is like stepping into a ritual, carrying this order of eeriness in which the band seem to comply, a consistent over the shoulder watch. Ultimately, the tracks then dives into a storytelling concoction paired with an auteur the band have coined with their fervid choruses and bolting musical stuns.
‘Karen’ is a hauntingly, car broke down on the quarry at dusk melancholy hymn. Vocally the track shivers bliss, dipping between a smooth and almost fearful delivery: “Playing a show to some hundreds of reptiles, who lick your silver hands and say silvers out of style now Karen” The track then erupts into a musically glorious concoction of a utopia that’s almost post-apocalyptic.
With drum chugging tracks like ‘Jet Show’, a disobedient and rugged fourth wall breaking headbanger, bringing the life to the party on the album. Complementary to lead single, ‘All My Freaks’, an identity crisis identification that reminisces The Cranberries with its atmospheric and dream jangling guitars with its toe-curling luck of the draw bingo-roller drums. It’s a track of hope, prosperity and change, a time machine to your youth that would catch you spinning in a field on an August Wednesday at sunset.
The albums strength cements itself in its eerie yet triumphant, ballads. ‘Where Do You Go’ is needed to be played on an infinite loop as a constant painstaking certification of skill. It feels distinctly Divorce with its raucous beauty. Previous single ‘My Room’ emerged a more mature, excruciatingly gorgeous older sibling with the track. It’s knife-edge vocals and threatening drums ache its personability exclaiming “Don’t know where I start, but I know where I end”. With drum chugging tracks like ‘Jet Show’ is a disobedient and rugged fourth wall breaking headbanger.
Where the drive seems to stagnate is the latter end of their debut effort. Acting as the token ‘slow tracks’ songs like ‘Parachuter’ and ‘Old Broken String’, feel slightly lacklustre and forgettable merging like a kind of magnolia watercolour. Attempts are made in the reoccurring circus theme from ‘jet shows’ and ‘carnivals’ in a ‘do reh me’ traditional pop style in ‘Parachuter’. These vocalic ad-libs are a creative stamp for the band, appearing in ‘All My Friends’ with its baritone juxtaposition to the track’s optimism.
For a band that just count themselves as the North of England, the quad invite an extremely 50 stars, red and white fanatical aurally, wedged somewhere between their bizarre personalities that exude through the album. If Divorce can be credited for anything with this album, it is world building. Round one, the band successfully seem to glue a paintbrush to the end of a Gibson and indulge the listener into their scene, a vivid and faithful verisimilitude. Most tactile, is the bands vocal abilities and spotlight that the band create around them, mere sounds open a labyrinth, and the minute whispers even seem to cascade a vision.
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Divorce hit the road with their album at stripped-back in stores today and their full live band on March 27th , and the blissful ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ is available to hitchhike below.
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