"Radio wars are coming," London-via-Sydney quartet Howling Bells harmonize halfway through their second album and first in three years, Radio Wars. "They're here." While it's not entirely clear what they're on about, there's little doubting that whatever form these radio wars may take, Howling Bells are ready for them. They've just come off a high-profile tour with Coldplay and Snow Patrol, they've got a couple of new videos in the can, and they've chiseled their agreeable sound into the 10 exquisitely produced tracks that comprise Wars; it's telling also that while the Bells' self-titled debut featured a nondescript and utterly forgettable grayscale collage on its cover, the new one puts portraits of the band members front and center (it doesn't hurt any that they're all easy on the eyes). Stylistically, Radio Wars represents a move away from the occasional organ and twang that gave these guys their previous country-noir tag, and finds them dabbling in keyboard-saturated textures and leaning a little more on their 1980s influences. It's still a tad dark, but more the dark of shadows and clouds and thunderstorms than of pitch black night.
The LP offers a formidable opening volley in the form of first track "Treasure Hunt", which springs right out of the stereo on a wave of "bah-bah"s, sci-fi sounds, and "How Soon Is Now?"-esque helicopter-blade-swirl guitar, never losing its impulse. "Into the Chaos" and single "Cities Burning Down" emerge as the other standouts here, both crisp, competent, cleanly-structured jams, though neither is nearly as dangerous as its name would have you think. The sugary sweet "Let's Be Kids", meanwhile, easily wins the prize for Track Most Likely to Make It Into AIM Away Messages, Facebook Status Updates, and Teen Television Drama Montage Sequences, even if its return-to-innocence sloganeering ("Let's be kids again/ Life was so simple then," goes the chorus) is a curious sentiment coming from a band so polished, professional, and, yes, grown up. As for everything else, well... again, it's an agreeable sound the Bells have hit upon, and that makes for an agreeable listen throughout. Plenty of bands have done far worse.
Howling Bells was a very agreeable record too, though, and Wars doesn't really improve on its predecessor in any significant regard. Even the aforementioned highlights don't quite shine like their counterparts from last time around: Nothing on the new album swoops quite like "Velvet Girl", or soars quite like "Setting Sun" ("Chaos" does come close), or snarls quite like "Low Happening". That's okay; Wars also shouldn't put off anyone who loved the first record, and thanks to increased worldwide exposure this time around, it will likely catch the attention of new fans looking to expand their scope of listening outside the present day alt-rock mainstream, but not too far. Sometimes wars are won with persistence and numbers alone, after all. And in any case, when you're cruising along in a pleasure craft as nice and reliable as this one, it's all right to tread a little water.
