EP REVIEW: A House Full Of Strangers – Wild Spelks

WILD SPELKS is the solo project of producer/songwriter/musician Jonathon Sabiston that started out as a collection of voice notes and demos that became debut solo single, The Happy Places. After earning the attention of various music publications, the project evolved into a full live band comprising various musicians from the North East, going on to sell out their first ever headline show at Bobiks in Newcastle and releasing a handful of successful stand-alone singles. Now, with the release of their debut EP, A House Full Of Strangers, WILD SPELKS set out to make themselves a household name in the alternative music scene.

Opening with They’re Gonna Get You, the upbeat, guitar-driven track is instantly an earworm, especially with the catchy chorus. The vocals are mixed well with the instruments, and neither are overwhelmed by the other, even when the instruments pick up the intensity during the chorus. After the upbeat start to the EP, the second song, Help Myself, is a more mid-tempo, drum-led track. It doesn’t drag though as the chorus picks things up. Whilst the structure of a mid-tempo verse and high-energy chorus is similar to the first song, the songs sound different enough from each other for this to not be a major issue.

Happy & Healthy is a fast-paced rock song, whereas Take It From A Friend is more of a mid-tempo indie-rock song that brings the drums to the forefront. Closer Getting The Band Back Together is similar to the first two songs in terms of its structure, but this isn’t a bad thing as there has been a break thanks to the tracks in between them. The bridge of this last track does unfortunately suffer from the instruments drowning out the vocals, but as this is WILD SPELKS‘ debut EP it is easy to forgive this little moment.

Overall, A House Full Of Strangers is a brilliant debut. In just five songs it makes a statement of who WILD SPELKS are and what their sound is. Whilst a few of the songs share similar structures, there is enough variation in their music style to differentiate them. The pacing of the EP is great, as – despite it only being five songs long – each track is long enough to make an impact on the listener. Furthermore, the variety in the songs shows that the band are not putting themselves into a box. Although this is still early days for WILD SPELKS, they have proven on this EP that they are more than capable of making a name for themselves.

Rating: 8/10

A House Full Of Strangers is set for release on June 21st via self-release.

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