The Dawn Chorus
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The Dawn Chorus

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"Album Review"

Musically rich and lyrically stunning, The Big Adventure is the greatest record ever from The Dawn Chorus. There are twelve songs present and every single one bristles with hooks and every single one has the epic feel of a grand American record, even though it actually comes out of Hampshire, UK.

The two part ‘The Big Adventure’ is a wonderful opening, sitting just before the a-grade single ‘The Hope Will Kill Us’ and ‘Come on Home’ completes the strongest possible opening four from just about any album ever. Other highlights are the emotive ‘River Song’ the folky ‘Fractured City’ and the sparkling ‘Not Having Fun’.

The Dawn Chorus even have the confidence to stick the brilliant and bouncy ‘Blast From The Present’ right at the end of the record in the slot that would have fallen to the record-ending shoe-gazer from any normal band.

If they were from Leeds, they’d be the darlings of Radio One for sure, but coming from Hampshire, they’ll have to settle for being ours instead.

- www.the-mag.me.uk


"Album Review"

Former PS demo faves come good on a country-rock record that’s wonderful because it evokes their native Hants as much as wide-open Americana.

Everything from Goldrush and Hobotalk to Bright Eyes and Wilco flits among the Evans brothers’ movingly optimistic vocals, unafraid to be as big and bold as they can make them.

It’s about full lives and finding the intimate music arrangements to match. Utterly gorgeous
- Planet Sound


"Album Review"

A heartfelt and intensely tuneful marriage between folk and indie, The Dawn Chorus write charming mini-anthems that will undoubtedly propel them to alt-stardom. Sounding like Wilco barn-dancing with a latter-day Supergrass. ‘The Big Adventure’ is a country-pop classic waiting to happen.

- Rock Sound


"Album Review"

The Big Adventure is the debut album from UK indie-folk 5-piece The Dawn Chorus. Their EP (reviewed here earlier this year) showed a band of great talent, so the arrival of this full-length effort was awaited with great anticipation. It is a pleasure to report that the short wait has been well rewarded.

The album opens with the excellent diptych “The Big Adventure”. Part one is essentially a folky, acoustic number, though the sound is enhanced by the use generous use of piano and strings. It also benefits from clever lyrics. Part two is driven by soft “marching” drums and trumpet, which build to an electric guitar-driven but still folksy ending. The suitably laid-back vocals complete a tremendous opening salvo of tracks.

Track 3 “The Hope Will Kill Us” is a (relatively) rockier affair with a slight whiff of “Hammer Horror” organ about it, confirming The Dawn Chorus have something a bit special about their approach and sound.

“Come On Home” follows and it is a jaunty, folk-influenced pop song, the trumpet/brass making it eminently suitable for the current festival season.

Track 5 “I Can Be Anything” has the most 60s pop (the Kinks) sound, while “She’s Like An Angel” has an almost “swing-band” introduction before moving into Weezer-with-brass territory.

“The River Song” introduces a female-male vocal into the mix, with rich, string-laden verses which, build towards an anthemic “if we try” crescendo. This is followed by “Summer of ’99” which being straight-forward guitar-driven indie is the least folk/country sounding song, but it fits right in due to it being thoroughly melodic and hummable.

Track 9 “Fractured City” is a return to the breezy, countrified sound, and again incorporated effective use of trumpet/brass to give the song more layers.

“Not having Fun” has a rich sound, whose title is a bit of a misnomer in that it sounds like the band jolly well are having fun.

Track 11 “Song For Antoinette” could/should be the “hit” single, due to its tremendous chorus if nothing else. Actually, it is a song of three halves, all of them good!! It starts as jaunty pop, changes to a quieter more reflective song, then ends with an anthemic male/female vocal. There is a certain epic quality to it all.

The final song “Blast From The Past” pushes the idea of a song with different “movements” even further, highlighting just how many ideas the band have. It begins with a sparse, acoustic guitar and strings introduction, moves on to an almost Mariachi-style brass number, then morphs into guitar-driven pop, before another brief Mariachi section finally evolves into drum-heavy indie. It is a fitting ending to a truly beautiful album.

The bands that might have influenced The Dawn Chorus are clear – Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel, and The Kinks among others – but they are far from being copyists. The songs are catchy, accessible and downright likeable. At the same time, they avoid being twee due to the meaningful often clever, occasionally humorous lyrics.

This could very well be my new favourite thing. Buy it.

- Whisperin and Hollerin


"Album Review"

The delicate lyrical delivery and solo acoustic guitar at the beginning of the opening title track easily draws comparison to a band like Bright Eyes very early on.

While the music is joyful, the lyrics tell a different and mournful story, one of death and the contemplation of suicide. This juxtaposition of the bare honesty of the lyrics and the jaunty style of the music is a staple of this debut; ?eThe Big Adventure?f alludes to death itself, and the album?fs subject matter is of a primarily sorrowful nature.

This album is sure to bring The Dawn Chorus the attention they deserve, hopefully without an adverse effect on their beautifully melancholic song writing.

Get 3 songs: ?eThe Big Adventure Part 1?Œ, ?eThe Hope Will Kill Us?f, ?eI Can Be Anything?f

- Clash Magazine


"Album Review"

Recently name-checked by Frank Turner in an interview with Stereokill as ¡°my new favourite band in the whole world ever¡±, Portsmouth¡¯s The Dawn Chorus have a lot to live up to. But, as I put their debut album on this morning, I was determined to listen with an impartial ear and not let anything colour my judgement. So, with no lofty and premature expectations, it was a pleasant surprise to find that debut album The Big Adventure is an intensely listenable record.

From the word go, I found myself captivated. The gentle acoustic strumming of ¡°The Big Adventure Part I¡±, segues seamlessly into the blaring horns and light guitar of ¡°Part II¡±. Together, they tell an intensely personal story, superbly comp¨¦red by vocalist Kyle Evans.

The Dawn Chorus are an impossible-to-pigeonhole band. The Big Adventure ebbs and flows from acoustic ballads to indie-rock anthems, bound together by some intelligent songwriting and lovely melodies. Above and beyond the conventional rock-band instrumentation lies a more experimental streak that shows its face in the violins and unexpected brass. It¡¯s this intricate musical layering that places the albums head and shoulders above anything else seen on the British indie scene this year.

At times, the album seems to lose its way - the mediocre rock of ¡°Summer of ¡®99¡å feels like a minor letdown, but it¡¯s quickly rescued by some simply superb songs: ¡°The Hope Will Kill Us¡± and ¡°Song for Antoinette¡± are particular gems. Even when Evans¡¯ Britpop drawl occasionally sounds a little lifeless, such moments are fleeting and don¡¯t flaw the album as a whole.

The Dawn Chorus are a band in the very best traditions of indie-folk. With a sound that forged somewhere between Bright Eyes and Murder by Death, this is an infinitely varied and uniquely charming album, with huge re-listening potential and the promise of great things to come.

- Stereokill


Discography

...in the eraly hours EP (2005, self released)
Something's Changed EP (2006, self released)
Town/City EP (2007, Jellymaid Music)
The Big Adventure (2008, album, Jellymaid Music)

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Bio

The Dawn Chorus are an indie/folk collective comprising of six lifelong friends from Fareham, Hampshire. Having self-released three locally acclaimed Eps, in 2008 the band released their début album 'The Big Adventure' on Portsmouth's Jellymaid Music. Loosely based on J.M Barrie's Peter Pan, the album tackles life, love and loss head-on. Intensely melodic and driven by guitars, mandolin and brass, the band take the sound popularised in the US by acts such as Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes and The Shins and give it a uniquely British twist. The band have played tour dates with Frank Turner, The Veils, Luke Haines and The Strange Death of Liberal England.

Praise for 'The Big Adventure':
"Intelligent, honest and beautiful" - REPEAT
"Beautifully melancholic songwriting" - Clash
"Utterly Gorgeous" - Planet Sound
"A country-pop classic waiting to happen" – RockSound
Ranked number 7 in Planet Sound's albums of 2008