Album Review: Wild Like Children

Released in the States on Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst’s label, Team Love, Tilly & The Wall’s full-length debut, Wild Like Children, finally gets a release in the UK, thanks to Moshi Moshi.

For the uninitiated, the roots of T&TW lie in a band called Park Ave., which was one of Oberst’s more prolific pre-Bright Eyes efforts. In fact, it’s fair to say that anyone already aware of Park Ave. will be instantly familiar with T&TW, for Wild Like Children boasts little but sugary, pointedly ramshackle, yet relentlessly infectious sing-along pop.

Helping push them over the barrier of standard indie-pop are an array of tight arrangements, focused song-writing, glossy production and a tap-dancing percussionist. Yes, you read that last bit correctly.

T&TW forgo a drummer and allow Jaime Williams’ tap-dancing to provide the rhythmic backing. While it sounds like a horribly throwaway gimmick at first, it actually makes sense. Williams thunders out staccato clusters that would be impossible to replicate on drums and, furthermore, it lends the jangly pop a martial demeanour that hoists the band well above their more traditional indie-pop peers.

Meanwhile, the switching of male and female vocals may initially be confusing, but it leaves the album sounding fresh and consistent. Besides, T&TW split their time so intelligently and so equally between youthful distress and jubilation that Wild Like Children is only ever a heartfelt and sophisticated coming-of-age document.