Waltzing With Claws - Wild Beasts

Underage Festival 2008, Wild Beasts have just started their set on the Domino stage, a stage home to their record label. Teenagers haven't turned up in their masses and you assume those watching with little movement are just taking it all in. But then there's a hormonal flurry as a good 99/100 of the crowd flock towards the Domino merch man, with free gifts on offer. Wild Beasts, unphased, simply play on the finer material from their debut album, 'Limbo, Panto'. At the time, you couldn't help but feel that they were grossly misunderstood, especially amongst these bloody kids. Because Wild Beasts are the sort of band you should care a lot about. Yet all of a sudden, people really, really care. 'Two Dancers' is waving the "album of the year" flag loud and proud for all to see and this time round, people are flocking to have a listen, not to bag some freebies.

So far, unless someone from The Sun publicly projects their disbelief at Hayden Thorpe's "bit too girly" falsetto, Wild Beasts' second album is pretty much the most critically acclaimed piece of music around. And the dust has yet to settle - 'Two Dancers' is only being released this week. Taking it in calmly and collectively, but staying all the more appreciative of what's happening, bassist and husky-voiced co-vocalist with Thorpe, Tom Fleming seems in good spirits: "I mean, when we began, we didn't say: “We’re going to make a critically acclaimed album,” but I’m noticing how much difference a good review makes and how much people's opinions matter and how much the coarse of opinion matters." This acknowledgement comes days after almost universal critical praise greeted the release of 'Two Dancers'; plaudits that will no doubt expose Wild Beasts to a completely new audience. "It’s just great that they’re taking us seriously, it’s very, very nice that it’s going down so well."

For a band that have been widely divisive between audiences, both on record and on stage, now is the time for Wild Beasts to certify their musical legacy, if they can. "If nothing else, we’re a “sit up and pay attention” band, we have the “what the fuck” factor at least." Tom admits, "But that’s the test this time with ‘Two Dancers’, we no longer have this “what the fuck” factor, we’re no longer a new band and we’re no longer young." Fleming gives the impression of a man with his feet firmly on the ground. Regardless of where 'Two Dancers' might end up taking them, you can expect nothing but professionalism and modesty from this Kent-bred quartet.

The album itself fits the requirements of the perfect second album. It's a rotation of ideas, from theatric flamboyancy to reverb-soaked vulnerability, lyrics remain littered with sex-references, percussion is kept smart and tight but somewhere during the last year or so, something clicked and Wild Beasts matured and truly became Beasts, as opposed to cubs. Fleming declares the recording process a "big learning curve for us", convinced that his band emerged from the studio, "growing in confidence". On 'Two Dancers', amongst a melancholic, underwater atmosphere comes a dance-off between Thorpe and Fleming, both completely diverse vocalists, both representing various ideas and goals. "Me and Hayden realised that we’d both become two characters, representing different poles of the album." Hayden Thorpe is essentially the intellectual, sex-obsessed nutcase, blasting out rhyming couplets that a good generation of lyricists wouldn't be capable of replicating, whilst Thorpe plays the part of an exposed human being, one brave enough to declare "two hearts, no more" at the close of the two-part title track, the absolute centerpiece of the latest record.

But there's more to 'Two Dancers' than sex references and a battle between two extravagant characters. "The ‘two dancers’ theme that underpins it is this idea of something always being out of reach, something always beyond your control. Everything is leading this formalised, abstract pattern, as if your life is proceeding without you and this album covers the joys and the frustrations of that. There’s a lot of loss and reconciliation, I suppose and it ends indefinitely, unsure." He's right, at the heart of it all, 'Two Dancers' is one of the most melancholic releases for some time. It switches between an defeatist attitude and one quite gritty and intimidating. Fleming recalls how he wanted 'All The Kings Men' to sound: "I remember asking to be made to sound half Elvis Presley, half Slavian Rapist".

"The biggest pleasure of music is surprise," announces Tom. And that completely sums up Wild Beasts. Whatever they continue to become, they will always be a band that stay true to the cause of making a casual passer-by shake their head in disbelief and make a scurry to the merchandise stand.