Whale

We Care (Hut/Virgin)
by Joshua Brown

I don’t love Whale so much as lust after them. No commitment necessary or appropriate, just a guaranteed good time. If they press annoying personality traits, Whale are aware of them enough to disallow their interfering with the festivities. The music is funky, upbeat, trip-hop (Tricky is involved) with bold lyrics (like in the song “Young Dumb and Full of Cum”) and an edge. You can masturbate over any of the 13 tracks, so naming standouts would be a disservice.

The frontwoman of the threesome has an almost David Byrne-like charisma and a voluptuous lemon juice squeal. It’s apparent that Whale have done their share of experimentation instrumentally and production-wise, and have chosen carefully among their aural concoctions rather than burden us with rough drafts. I caught Whale live at Axis when they opened for fellow Brits Blur. They were the better of the two.