Wrestlerish - The Rude Mechanical

19 Mar 2010

Wrestlerish walk the pop tightrope with their mix of heartfelt catchy tunes in their self-produced debut album; The Rude Mechanical. For the most part they do this with aplomb and class but now and again I feel like they seesaw towards a far too soppy sound. (How's that for mixing metaphors?) Though my opinion on this varies greatly on my mood, sometime I can listen to the album and love it all but at other times there are tracks that just sound too cutesy…

…these songs however are in the minority and on the whole the combination of intense lyrics, sweeping cinematic soundscapes, rousing guitar and lead vocalist Werner Olckers' unique and wonderfully high voice create something quite special.

First track Sleep immediately sucks you into the Wrestlerish nostalgic world and is beautifully stirring and soaring. Next track Orphans is a wonderfully meandering nautical-like ditty. Unfortunately for me the next two tracks, Nextolgia and The Rude Mechanical are ones that don't sit that well with me. Title track, The Rude Mechanical is my least favourite song on the whole album and is one that I find myself wishing every time would finish sooner. However, next track the upbeat Bad News which has received some well-deserved radio play redeems things for me. As does the cutely titled and guitar driven, The Teddy Bear Gospel Choir.

Wrestlerish for me shines when they stick to a more upbeat and layered sound and this seem to work best when combined with Olckers' heartbroken and post break-up lyrics. This is beautifully achieved in track 10, If This Ship Goes Down, I'm Taking You With Me, (But we're sinking, hold on tight, And if I die, it will be tonight…) and track 12 Maybe I Could.

Wrestlerish has tapped into that winning formula that often seems so hard to achieve; in sounding both unique and sincere, as well as extremely radio friendly and easily accessible.