Taking a fast descent into even boppier synths, the already upbeat The Jungle Giants deliver more bangers on their third studio album Quiet Ferocity. The album was released the 7th of July, and already the band has announced a national headline tour to support it.
The indie four piece come from Brisbane, Australia, gained interest in 2011 with their single “Mr Polite” and later on, Rolling Stone magazine gave their second album Speakerzoid a 4 out of 5, saying that the album wa, “a restless beast, keeping you on your toes throughout. An excellent, eminently rewarding surprise“.
The lead single this time around, “Feel The Way I Do” starts with some sweet 80’s keyboard synth then straight into guitar and bass and a good build up to the chorus, where the sound lapses for a second and lead singer Sam Hales says clearly, “I know you feel the way I do” like he’s next to you.
The making of Quiet Ferocity was made somewhat accidentally the band mates have recently revealed. While they were taking a break with the band’s drummer Keelan Bijker doing a café side project, Sam continued writing as usual and once they all met to try out a freshly opened studio nearby, Quiet Ferocity was in the making.
The accompanying music video for “Feel The Way I Do” is a good laugh, a time traveling astronaut lands in a nice suburban home and pretty quickly gets bored, then dancing with creatures made out of household items ensues. The video is directed and edited by Nick Maguire, who also brought us the “Every Kind Of Way” music video.
The album’s opening track “On Your Way Down” mixes more synth with cow bells and clicking even. The Jungle Giants have a similar simple composition charm to their fellow aussie band San Cisco. While The Jungle Giants aren’t the same rock sound, their instrumentals remind me of “Limit Of Love” by Boy and Bear, Giants actually toured with Australian rock talent Boy and Bear last year.
The album’s 10 tracks see the lyrics delving a little deeper compared to previous albums, songs like “Time And Time Again” and “Bad Dream” have you tapping along and also carrying your mind away. With lyrics like “I’m running high but I can’t get enough of the way you run my soul in“, or the sweet “You could be my nightmare
And you’d still be my love“.
Consistently through, are the beats on this record. This whole album could be played in a disco remix, and I sincerely hope it is. Besides our big electronic names like Flume, something you wouldn’t always expect to hark from Down Under is dance floor jams.
My favourite song on Quiet Ferocity is “Used To Be In Love“, beginning with just a bit of acoustic and quiet ‘ah’s from Sam, the song builds adding fast electric guitar and electronic feedback building and building with the chorus repeating towards the end, “Used to be in love but you ran away“. The bass and synth a worth some big speakers and a boogie.
While the album hasn’t been out long enough for any fair comparisons with the band’s previous albums, I feel their last album Speakerzoid is the record I like best from The Jungle Giants. It was more varied in sounds and beats, relying less on similar synth beats in every song.
Speakerzoid kept you surprised, with cowbells and wood boarding for sound effects, wondering what trick they were going to pull next. It’s a shame to lose that charm. If anything, Quiet Ferocity was a fair go at the more electronic movement, and it’s definitely groovy. I miss that guitar led improv riffs playing in a pub sort of sound though.
The Jungle Giants Quiet Ferocity is out now via Amplifire Music, purchase it on iTunes here.
Words by Melissa Davis
