Album Review: XUP – Feed The Wolf Inside

What is XUP? I hear most of you say, well your’e not alone, although being a one person DIY project is always going to be a hard thing to get across to the masses.  Having already released five previous albums and a few singles, XUP being a one woman purveyor of art/poetry set to a musical backdrop, this the sixth in the collection, its hard not to be impressed, or somewhat in awe of the belief in what Lane is doing.

‘Feed The Wolf Inside’ by the title alone conjures up images of dark and mysterious places that lurk in probably everyones minds that need to either fed or kept at bay with offerings.  What comes across lyrically is a huge sense of internal conflict, moments of beauty, acts of love and strangely enough an inner calm that comes from understanding what the beast is that controls you.

Not to say that this is a definitive understanding of the thoughts behind the words, its pretty obvious that it can also be open to interpretation.

Musically its difficult to divide songs up into the norm of what constructs a flowing album, what you get here, is what sounds like drum beats that simply change tempo to match the mood of each story within the song, added to this are bass lines that flit in and out to give the songs depth and atmosphere, interesting Vox riffs and melodies, but with all this, the down side is that you do by the track six or seven, find yourself wondering is the last slice of musical wallpaper simply the same as the previous.  Using the term wallpaper seems apt though, as it does feel that the music is just a backdrop to what really drives each track, that being the poetry/stories within.

Don’t enter this electro hypnosis of darkness, unless you seek something that is beyond the norm,  but if you do get past the outer skin, you may find something that enthrals.

Personally, the written word without the musical overcoat, might have been easier to digest.

Get yourself over to BANDCAMP to immerse yourself 

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