Album Review: Show Me How The Spectres Dance

Aged only 22, Manchester singer-songwriter Liam Frost has undergone a barrage of hype that would've made Nine Black Alps blush. Described by Elbow's Guy Garvey as "the most talented young songwriter Manchester has produced for years"; a quote that could easily come back to a songwriter at such an embryonic stage of their career. That is until you realise that Show Me How The Spectres Dance is one of the best debut albums to come out of Manchester for many years.

Anyone who caught Frost's performances a year or so ago will have noted that, sans band, the songs were intimate and melancholic, but perhaps lacked the weight to propel Frost over the most limited of cult status. The very presence of The Slowdown Family not only helps bring Frost's songs to life, but afford them the bigger, fuller arrangements that they deserve.

Album opener, The City Is At Standstill, with its sweeping violins, glorious piano and enjoyable handclaps offers a perpetual urgency the likes of which Arcade Fire mastered on their debut album. Later, the atmospheric, harmonica-driven Shall We Dance has the feel of classic Bruce Springsteen in its step, Try, Try, Try is a tear-stained country shuffle and the mandolin accompaniment to debut single, She Painted Pictures, absolutely glistens.

However, despite the instrumental swagger, Frost's lyrical preoccupations weigh heavy on the album. Haunted by loss, several of the songs (notably Is This Love?) seem to trap grief in their melodies and release them with a sense of hopefulness, while Paperboats and This Is Love both capture the album's instinctive escapism.

Despite little homages to What A Wonderful World and The Smiths' William, It Was Really Nothing, Show Me How The Spectres Dance is a sui generis work and a tremendous curtain raiser for Liam Frost's burgeoning career.