What’s so impressive about Darlingside’s new album Birds Say is how fully developed it feels. From the first minute it has an identity, its acoustic arrangements and rich, four-part vocal harmonies hearkening to ’60s folk (the CSNY influence is massive) yet the foursome still take the music in a direction that feels contemporary. It’s rooted in traditional music but has a very subtle experimental mentality that gives the music a quirky charm of its own. It’s not easy for a band to sound like they hit the ground running, but Darlingside do that on a record that, if there’s any justice in this world, should click in a huge way with the indie folk crowd.
Birds Say will be released on 18 September (pre-order it here), and we couldn’t recommend listening to the album below highly enough.