Just eleven months after they released their debut album, ‘Wayne Coyne’, Danish indierock outfit The William Blakes are ready with the follow up, ‘Dear Unknown Friend’. A few things have changed musically in the time passed and the trio has become a quartet, now including Bo Rande (Blue Foundation, Mew, Efterklang etc).

One thing have remained the same, though, and that’s the serious subject matter of their lyrics. Politics, belief systems and the big unknown(s), a sense of much not being right, but with a hope on behalf of mankind intact (a “special thanks” to Barack Obama in the cover reveals most), are still the driving forces in the most often elegantly poetic call and response lyrics – one exception being ‘It Looked Like Us’ where more traditional storytelling is applied, losing the aforementioned elegance in the attempt.

As the debut ‘Dear Unknown Friend’ is an engagingly extravagant patchwork of indierock, alt-folk, 1960s psychedelia and, this time around, 80s pop (‘Our Moment’ have me think Duran Duran while first single ‘Secrets’ sports an angular guitar riff fit for, well, any Tears For Fears song). The spherically meditative ‘Our Song’ and eerie Efterklang-moment ‘Contact’ offer big, pleasing surprises, while catchy ‘No Matter What (We’re Not Alone)’ is yet another stab at the 80s with funky guitars and well-placed handclaps.

Compared to ‘Wayne Coyne’ it could seem that the anarchy at the base of The William Blakes’ collaboration has been replaced by thought to a certain extend, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. And it certainly doesn’t change the fact that ‘Dear Unknown Friend’ is a powerful and elegant second effort cementing their status as one of the most interesting acts on the Danish music scene right now.

Genre: Rock
Who: The William Blakes
Album: Dear Unknown Friend
Label: Speed Of Sound/A:larm Music
Year: 2009
Country: Denmark
Language: English
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Recommended tracks:
No Matter What (We’re Not Alone) – Our Moment – Secretly – Our Song – Contact