Expect the unexpected said the man with the plan and these ears duly engaged maximum suspicion mode as the play button was pressed on “Age of Loneliness”, the debut album from Vamberator.
Vamberator - Jemaur Tayle and Boris Williams, former members of Shelleyan Orphan and The Cure respectively – might well be on album number one but the members have been around since the world was full of mascara men so they should know a musical thing or two about holding an audience’s attention. And so it was. Mood swings permeate this album, as does sentimentality and determined quirkiness, yet this rather individual approach makes all that you hear seem personal rather than contrived as if the point were to portray something that once was as being never lost and always worth remembering.
Vamberator do, duly and verily, pull all sorts of old school moves from their trick bag but that is no surprise when you have the degree of musical maturity that this band have. It is, however, somewhat more difficult to pigeonhole their style. Elements of folk music can be heard as can tail end post punk guitar stylisations but, when all is said and done, Vamberator don’t really sound like anyone else of these days and, for that, we should all be truly thankful.
There will no doubt come a time when an album like “Age of Loneliness” will not even be considered viable so, whilst you still can, revel in the discontinuities and quirkiness – there’s that word again – that make music real. It’s a personal thing and none the worse for all that. Unexpected, as always, is where it is at.