ALBUM: Will Butler ‘Policy’

Rating:

Always thought of as the little puppy dog eagerly trying to impress cool, big brother Win and his fancy French girlfriend, Will Butler is the cheery ball of energy seen hoying drums in the air and clattering about in a papier mache bobble head, as Arcade Fire have ascended to stadium filling, festival topping fame. It was kind of assumed that the rest of the gang ruffled his hair, smiled at him sweetly and only allowed him to have a go on their hurdy gurdy’s if he promised to eat all of his greens at dinner time. It turns out that there’s a bit more to Butler junior than that.

An all-round bubbling creative force with a degree in poetry and a musical background boosted by time spent as a radio DJ, Butler won an Oscar for the soundtrack he made with Owen Pallet for Spike Jonze’s movie Her in 2014, and was more recently tasked with writing a song a day based on news stories in The Guardian. This kind of freewheeling, auteur spirit shines through on Policy, a debut that bounces along to the electrified-Americana boogies of Dylan’s Highway 61 and skips to the tune of David Byrne’s art-funk new wave.

It’s all bright, up-tempo positivity as opener ‘Take My Side’ stomps away in a 4/4 march through Butler’s eccentric, scatty pleas for loyalty, but his attention soon flits to ’80s synth-pop experiment ‘Anna’ and on to the other end of the musical scale with solitary piano lament ‘Sing To Me’. He strikes as someone easily distracted by shiny sounds, and this jumble of ideas makes for a disjointed, iPod shuffle of an album – albeit one with plenty to charm and interest.

The chaotic splatter gun attack of feedback, choirs, electro squelches and funk lines leaves ‘Something Coming’ lost in a sprawling tizzy, and the Jack White-goes-gospel jam session of closer ‘Witness’ falls flat, but high point ‘What I Want’ races to an urgent, frenzied pulse as Butler tries manically to decipher his own scattered thoughts and needs.

Though it threatens to be the best Arcade Fire album in years, Policy doesn’t deliver the heaven bursting crescendos that hallmark the band’s finest moments, and there is an underlying stop-gap feel to proceedings. Nevertheless, it does shine a deserving light on Butler’s talent and bristling energy and could be a line in the sand moment for an artist determined to be considered alongside the likes of Surfjan Stevens and Conor Oberst, rather than just the Arcade Fire class clown.

Policy is out now via Merge Records.

Kevin Irwin

Kevin Irwin

Kevin Irwin

Kevin Irwin

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