When Vancouver’s the Belle Game debuted in 2009 with an EP called Inventing Letters, their brand of folk-pop, captured perfectly on lead single “Tiny Fires,” was fun and breezy, just summery enough to win them the Fan Favourite Award in Shore FM’s Sounds of the Summer contest.
But it’s been a formative few years for the band, which has opened for the likes of Gotye and Polaris Music Prize winners Karkwa, and is just now releasing a debut full-length album, Ritual Tradition Habit, an affecting and introspective look at the impulses that drive us to do the things we do. The album will be released April 16, but you can stream it in advance starting today.
ListenStream Ritual Tradition Habit by The Belle Game, out April 16. (Pre-order the album here).
Tracklist
“Back then we were still figuring out our real tastes,” explains singer Andrea Lo about the sonic chasm between Inventing Letters and their current album. “Even our second EP [2011’s Sleep to Grow] could be considered part of this unintentional experimentation phase. We started as a three-piece, so when we accumulated more members, we naturally accumulated more influences, and now our tastes have become clearer.”
The Belle Game currently consists of Lo (vocals), Adam Nanji (vocals, lead guitar), Alex Andrew (rhythm guitar), Katrina Jones (piano, backup vocals) and Rob Chursinoff (drums). Now with the release of Ritual Tradition Habit, the band has left the realm of indie folk in order to fully embrace dark noise pop.
Sonically, the album ebbs and flows, with full guitars and percussion at some points, enough space to let Lo’s vocals resonate in others, while reverb and orchestral harmonies lend the entire thing a pall of melancholy; My Bloody Valentine meets the XX, with just a touch of southern rock.
On one end you have the jangly lead single, “Wait up For You,” which is like Kings of Leon fronted by Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino and filtered through '60s pop reverb, and on the other you have “Bruises to Ash,” a minimal and haunting heart-on-sleeve confessional with ethereal chants. Spread throughout are the three title tracks, “Ritual,” “Tradition” and “Habit,” which break up the album with their blissful experiments into rich chamber pop.
“We noticed there were these recurring themes on most of the songs,” says Lo. “In growing up, you shed your skin, and there are many rituals and traditions that have been passed down to you that have become habits because they let you deal and cope with things in a certain way. So we just thought it would be interesting to have these interludes in between in order to stress them.”
Lo says the band usually writes together, “in a basement with mood lighting, just to get it going,” although she admits she left more of herself on this record than in the past, which is reflected on the overall mood.
“It has a lot to do with being between 18 and now, just growing up, leaving the nest and going through different types of relationships,” the 25-year-old singer says, although no songs are as personal and poignant as “Bruises to Ash.”
“It’s the first time I had put pen to paper and been so daringly honest to myself,” she says, explaining that the song is about her former habit of cutting, which she’s only “been free of” for the past two or three years. “It’s not blatantly obvious, but the lyrics sum up the romanticisation of it. It’s interesting because you see that after you’ve done it, you realize it’s not productive, it’s not good for you. It’s interesting to see the old pair of rose-coloured glasses you used to wear."
Being one of the first songs they wrote, it proved to be a cathartic experience, and set the tone for the rest of the album.
“It’s more mature, more intellectual, more than just boy meets girl, girl meets boy,” says Lo, comparing it to their earlier work.
In other words, the Belle Game isn't afraid to grow up, a big part of which has to do with facing your past, scars and all.
Related:
New dark pop music from Half Moon Run
Blue Hawaii’s Untogether: album stream and Q&A
Grimes to the Magnetic Fields: a literary examination of 2012’s best lyrics