Brilliantly named Van Houten have released ‘The Tallest Room’, a record seven years in the making. The Leeds band enlisted the ears and ideas of producer Alex Greaves (bdrmm, Bloc Party) to help and the result is an emotional snapshot of the band’s formulative years that also manages to look ahead to an optimistic future.
‘Black and White’ opens the record with a burst of feedback and precision drumming while shoegaze guitar soon comes to the fore. This is quickly followed by ‘Never Did Come Back’, a melodic but brutal track that opens with brooding bass and a emo tendencies as the band demand you ‘Watch this and disappear’. ‘Panoramic View’ has more experimental tones to start with before a gorgeous guitar tone shines through along with some hushed vocals heartbreakingly explaining how ‘Every place you go doesn’t feel like home’.
‘Note to Self’ reminded us of Youthmovies with its combination of math and post rock while ‘I Only Wanna Be With You’ is a love song complete with woozy hooks that takes the album into a garage rock direction: ‘All the things I do, I only wanna be with you’. ‘Head Straight’ is more melodic and dreamy with self-deprecating moments – ‘I don’t deserve you’ – and a noisy, effects-driven climax before the record finishes with ‘I Let You’ – a driving seven-minute piece about struggling to move on from heartbreak, explaining how it feels like time stands still when someone turns their back… ‘I can’t stand this silence’.
Although there’s so much emotion and pain in the subject matter, Van Houten’s ‘The Tallest Room’ is a record that soars…
