Go Tell Fire to the Mountain by WU LYF (2011)

You will know pretty quickly whether or not this album is going to be for you — I'd estimate that if you're still with them halfway through second track 'Cave Song', when you get your first taste of lead Ellery Roberts' guttural (and incomprehensible) grunting, you'll have plenty more to enjoy on the way.

The lore behind WU LYF (World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation) is stranger than fiction. In short — they ignored an eager cold call from Michel Gondry, they sold their demo to the highest bidding A&R rep, they rejected every single attempt at press coverage and have maintained as mystifying of a web presence as you could possibly imagine. Oh also, they did all of this while claiming to be reinventing the wheel and uniting all of humanity at last.

Their first, and so incredibly sadly, only, album (they did coincidentally JUST reunite and announce an album to be released in about a week but, if I'm being honest, I have little faith that it will reach the heights their debut took us to) is a true celebration of music's potential. Some of the best and most difficult to describe rock music I've ever heard, that refuses to do anything but improve on each listen. They manage to traverse an impossibly wide spectrum across ten tracks without ever, once abandoning all that makes them unique (or that stunning, never ending drum bounce).

As someone who considers confidence to be the defining trait in all the music I hold closest and dearest, you can imagine why every second of this album is forever etched in my brain and heart. We bros, we bros so long.

They really don't want you streaming this album, and I'm choosing to respect that.

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