When We Were Giants
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When We Were Giants

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"Review: WHEN WE WERE GIANTS – “Loose Lips & Sinking Ships”"

‘When we were giants’ are an astonishing 2 piece Pop Punk/Progressive rock band from Lincolnshire, UK. They are currently signed to ‘Homesick Records UK’ and are predicted to do really well, with their album ‘Loose Lips & Sinking Ships’ and I can’t help but agree.

The album is an 11 track, and very well done may I add. I always look for certain qualities in and album when reviewing and they are; Production, Creativity and talent. These guys tick all the boxes with Loose ‘Lips & Sinking Ships’ I particular like their syncopated guitar overdubs, well fitted and well written. Top quality.

The album starts off with an upbeat introduction and then leads you onto the opening song which is pretty quirky and clean in a sense. Very melodic, very uplifting as well. Has a positive feel to it, which you can never really go wrong with!

I have to say this band surprised me, mainly because they are a two piece. It is so rare to find a successful duo nowadays and especially one that writes and produces everything themselves. I know how patient you have to be when producing/recording usually because there’s always something that goes wrong, but they have literally done everything independently and perfected it Even the artwork! Must have taken quite some time, So I take my hat off to them! It’s actually inspiring knowing how dedicated these guys are.

They remind me a lot of ‘YM@6’ and ‘Transit’, they have their similarity’s in melody and tend to have that deep feeling to them. WWWG are that kind of band that you learn from. My favorite song on the album is definitely “Where I want to be”, very meaningful and vocals are on point, highly syncopated with touches of piano to add richness into the song and not too heavy on the timbre, overall a brilliant track.

The album as a whole is a success. To do what ‘when we were giants’ have done is actually quite amazing. They’ve built themselves from the ground up, along with the amount of time and effort they would have had to of put in on top! I really do predict a bright future for these guys and I think everyone should go out and get their album considering it’s free! The music industry could benefit from more like minded people and definitely from their music. - Introduce: Yourself Zine


"When We Were Giants - Loose Lips & Sinking Ships"

You're probably sick of us banging on about bands from the US's bountiful East Coast music scene, so let us introduce you to (unless you're way ahead of us and know them already) Boston duo When We Were Giants. And no, this isn't another US indie-type band, these guys are from the real Boston, the one in Lincolnshire. 'Loose Links & Sinking Ships' is their second album, although the press info describes them as "talented kids", so we'll assume they're still relatively young, probably teenagers. The pair of Greg Simpson and Kane Storr take care of business themselves; from the writing, playing all the instruments and production. We can only speculate on the "kids" part of the statement, but the "talented" part seems to ring true. Oh, the artwork? They did that too.

It's all very well teaming up with your mate and recording some tunes, hundreds of people do that (you should try going through our inbox every morning) but more often than not the results leave a little to be desired. No so here. They discuss getting together and writing songs, gradually improving and delving a little into their journey so far on (deep breath) 'There's No Mountains In This Neighbourhood But The View From The Roof Isn't Bad'. It's the kind of melodic punk-pop that would now disparagingly be lumped in with emo, but only because that genre's meaning has changed. When We Were Giants write good songs, although they do champion emo heroes such as Jimmy Eat World and Angels And Airwaves.

Whether it's their British take on such sounds or a generally different approach to writing, it would be doing them a disservice piling them in with that crowd (mind you, Jimmy Eat World have their moments). It's an indie/punk/pop concoction that they make, and they do it well, our only suggestion would be relying a little less on imitation and moving more towards developing their own sound, they have the ability. 'From A Movie Reel' and '...Where I Want To Be' show that they have more than one trick up their sleeves. Unless the dreaded artistic differences or other personal divisions come between these guys (and we hope they don't), in a few years they might just become those giants after all. - The Sound Of Confusion


"Album Review: When We Were Giants - Loose Lips & Sinking Ships"

Greg Simpson and Kane Storr are the Homesick Records-signed duo, When We Were Giants – a pair of talented Lincolnshire lads who first appeared on the scene last year, with their début album ‘Eyes Wide and Kneeling’. It was a great start for the pair, whose take on the pop punk sound showed a talent for lyrically rich layered melodies. Although, they seemed to be attempting to neutralise their accents somewhat and to mimic that typical American post-grunge alt rock sound…you know the one – that Green Day-style chord progression used by countless bands including Set Your Goals and New Found Glory. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I am much more impressed by what When We Were Giants have done with album two - ‘Loose Lips & Sinking Ships.’ All pretense has been ditched and the guys have embraced their heritage to produce an interesting and unusual concept album, right down to the album art, which includes images that could have been plucked from the memory of any 80’s child from that neck of the woods.

‘Loose Lips & Sinking Ships’, is an uplifting and well-produced album summarised well by the sub-header; “A Collection of Stories from Nostalgic Minds & Long Lost Friends”. It’s very likable and characterised by syncopated melodies and time signature play that leaves the layers and sequences tripping over themselves in an ambling nostalgic daydream. It’s a fairly distinctive sound but I would liken the style to that of Into It. Over It., which is surely a huge compliment to any band.The 11 tracks are very well-rounded, offering plenty of variance to keep the ear awake while maintaining the overall concept and character throughout. Track one is the well-named ‘Goodbye to the Ground’ – a short mood-setting intro. Personal favourites include the pie-eyed and eager ‘To A Lover, To A Friend’; the instantly lovable ‘Stay’, with it’s awesomely catchy chorus of “I was just trying to find the room to breath and so were you. But I hope one day we’ll meet in the middle at least”, which I’ve had stuck in my head since my first listen; and ‘Eighty Weeks Or Minutes Or Days As Years’, with it’s more restrained vocals and rippling guitar.

You can’t help but get caught up with their honest lyrics and anthem-like choruses. It is clear that they’ve put a lot of work in to produce something of such a good standard and the track, ‘There’s No Mountains In This Neighbourhood But The View From This Roof Ain’t Bad’, tells us something about that battle from dreams and practising (“Yeah yeah, we’ll get there somehow, even if it takes forever”) to having accomplished so much while still awaiting real success (“So please don’t bury me alone beneath this wood I’ve borrowed”). That’s another great track but none on this album fall short of the mark.

‘Loose Lips & Sinking Ships’ is all the more impressive for the fact that they’ve managed it all independently. It’s a great album and one to listen to anywhere and at any time, as it cleverly puts you in in a particular mood or frame of mind rather than feeds one. This is well worth a listen and even a purchase when the price is whatever you’re prepared to pay for it. - Already Heard


Discography

Eyes Wide and Willing (Full Length) December 2011
An Agony In Five Fits (E.P) March 2012
Loose Lips and Sinking Ships (Full Length) October 2012

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Bio

When We Were Giants started in spring 2011 when a small band deteriorated leaving two members which then became the band as we know it now. The band is located in lincolnshire and consists of Greg Simpson and Kane Storr who play all instruments themselves. In this formation When We Were Giants has released two albums and an E.P but are constantly writing for their next release. Their latest release, "Loose Lips and Sinking Ships" received international airplay and positive reviews, Introduce: Yourself Zine ended their review with this "The music industry could benefit from more like minded people and definitely from their music.".