With their opening salvo "You Know Everything", London-based newbies Baptiste make it clear that all the stops will be pulled on this debut. Imagine an anthemic twist on My Bloody Valentine's saturated wall of sound: guitars, warbling and shifting in and out of time like an overplayed 45rpm, are propelled by a driving keyboard drone (one that would have Stereolab giggling delightfully) as a prim-and-proper frontman drawls across a lyric sheet like a schoolboy fixated on a conflation of the dark Romantics and the Sex Pistols. And while the MBV and punk rock similarities stop right there, Baptiste has all manner of sonic tricks up their black suit-jacket sleeves -- from the raw stomp of Motor City rock to the pulsing structures of New Order in their prime.
The excitement and kineticism of Nothing Shines Like A Dying Heart is rooted in the sheer, stunning enthusiasm Baptiste has for the music that has inspired them and their ability to expertly naturalize those sounds into their own. Each track is an amalgam of the most groundbreaking underground rock and pop of the last thirty years. Vocalist Wayne Gooderham does his best "Johnny Rotten dressed in Tindersticks garb", sporting something less than a snarl and something more than the dandy-ist twist on the garage rock fad that seems to have enthralled everyone lately. Throw in a dash of Richard (Psychedelic Furs) Butler's sophisticated croon and you're almost there. Elsewhere, Baptiste exhibit elements of Mazzy Star's cowboy-on-downers aesthetic and Galaxie 500's diffused sense of melody and fractured take on love lived and lost. Musical arrangements are sparse but gorgeously intelligent, with melodica and brushed percussion providing a brooding backdrop before which Colin Moors's simple yet emotive lead guitar and Scott Brodie's somnambulistic bass lines can sprawl across and search out the nuanced themes of the compositions. Those familiar with Tram's last two (horribly underrated) albums of lilting, atmospheric ballads will find parallels in Baptiste's softer side. "Some Would Call It Drowning" and "The Half-Light" are the most notable among these introspective, down-tempo selections; they stand in stark relief from the album's rockers.
Honestly, with such a diverse mixture of sounds explored and applied within the body of each song, Nothing Shines Like A Dying Heart will take some time to grow on listeners. It's difficult to negotiate the cluttered inter-textual sonic field that is Baptiste's debut -- but after developing their sound over the course of a handful of hard to find singles (and their very own club night, Uptight, still alive and well in Soho), Baptiste seem ready to serve notice to a larger public that they have every intention of claiming these dynamic sounds as their own.