"Privileged Animals" by Ieere

Ahead of their new album, 'Sad Moon, Sleepy Heads',  Ieere have managed to sneak in another taster single, in this case "Privileged Animals" which is out today.

As with all the material on the album, the starting point here is the work of Goethe: in this case it's inspired by his short poem with this title written in February 1815.

A contrast with the last single "The Earth Spirit", being less rowdy & naturally earthy, the broad theme is still spiritual in nature though exploring rather different aspects. If they most recently looked at the more pagan aspects, this time the touchstones are closer to more formal religious traditions, melding elements from orient & occident: not least Buddhist beliefs in hierarchies of reincarnation (though you can also take away a commitment to animal welfare).

The sound has shifted too in order to reflect this: raunchy crunching guitars giving way to a clipped/pulsing groove redolent of 1980s indie pop (think of the likes of "Take the Skinheads Bowling") , the lightness of touch perhaps pointing to the transcendent aspects of the words. The latter are delivered via shifting vocal patterns with the main (male) narrative being joined & occasionally entwined by a female one like lianas in some paradise.

As with the other songs shared so far, this serves admirably to emphasise that the philosophy of Goethe is not rooted in the nineteenth or any other century: the sentiments remain but the setting can vary with the currents of culture.

So far so good. However when you play the song, I defy you not to zoom in on the handclaps which provide more than just mid song punctuation: they almost constitute a solo in their own right so prominently are they mixed. Now the humble handclap helps drive all sorts of high energy pop tunes from "I Want To Hold Your Hand" to "Teenage Kicks" and a million more besides: yet are rarely if ever mentioned by anyone describing the songs in question. Perhaps Ieere are trying to emancipate this downtrodden aspect of musical arrangements? That said, I'm not even sure here whether these are human ones or artificially generated ones: if the former then I congratulate the band on the regularity of timing & volume.

You never get a dull song from this band nor one which doesn't prompt odd thoughts which otherwise probably wouldn't occur to one.