It is packed full of blissful lyrics of devotion and unfailing love and a lot of the dark experimentation of earlier works have turned into more fully realised entities making the album as a whole way more consistent than past efforts. No Shouts, No Calls is Electrelane's most accessible album to date but is also their most joyous. It's airy and joyous and provides light relief from the emotion that went before. This is a stripped down ukulele love ditty and is as light as The Wolf And The Dog is heavy. The other song that strays from the formula is Cut And Run. The instrumental muscle is diffused nicely by some sweet oo's and ah's in the middle, but all in all this song serves to get your attention. It's also one of the few nearly instrumental tracks recalling their earlier work. The drums are relentless and pounding and the guitars even more so. This is one of the few times when this gradual build up technique is not employed and it's a wake up call to any lazy ears.
The punch comes in the form of Between The Wolf And The Dog. It's simply beautiful and shows this bands versatility and ability to move the listener with a punch and a whisper. The rhythm of the drums carries us higher to be joined gradually by the string section which soars to majestic heights. The blissful vocals ease us in over the most delicate of piano melodies. In Berlin is a perfect example of this winning formula. They contain long hours of sunshine and any clouds that may occur are welcome. They either wind down as gently as they begun or collapse in a heap of exhausted joy. They start off gently with the sweetest melody then slowly and only when you're completely ready do they rise and pick up speed to an invigorating gallop. They take the form of the most perfect day. The majority of the songs here follow a similar formula.
"I've been waiting for you," it claims, well so have we. From the first note of opener The Greater Times your heart will let out a sigh of relief as if it had been holding its breath since the last release. It's exactly what I wanted from this band and is a damn near perfect album. Luckily, Electrelane's fourth release No Shouts, No Calls ties up unfinished business perfectly and seems a much more logical follow up to The Power Out than Axes did. Strangely though, it's follow up seemed to leave this behind slightly and 2005's Axes was an admirable extension to their sound, offering up a much more challenging listening experience - but it didn't capitalise on the successes of The Power Out as much as I had hoped. I first came into contact with Electrelane via their second album and debut for Too Pure, The Power Out (I was in a coma when they released their first record Rock It To The Moon in 2001.) Their expansion of the instrumental rock jams of before to include the most beautiful vocals was a wise move and made this record one of the best albums of the last 5 years. Surely there is only 2 possible ways to answer this question and that is the obvious "yes" or " I'm sorry but I've been in a coma for the last 10 years and haven't heard this band to which you refer." In my humble opinion to hear this band is to love them. When I ask people if they like Electrelane and their answer is not "hell yea, those girls rule," they get greeted with a look of utter confusion like they've just replied in a language that I am not familiar with.