E.P. Review: Chapter Nineteen - A Story Well Told
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
This debut EP from the UK duo, Chapter Nineteen, is a strange and wonderful creature; a concept record in which the band utilise the strength of their eclectic sound to reinforce the narrative. Peppered amongst the seven tracks is the story, as told by an unnamed narrator – presumably a former manager – talking to a reporter about a band with whom he was once involved.
This forms the platform for the EP in which the band, as represented by the tracks, tell their story of a brave, but ultimately doomed, attempt to make it in the music industry. The band in question were too ahead of their time and no matter how they tried to change their sound, it was never enough.
In order to convey this narrative arch, Chapter Nineteen unpack all of the musical tools in their arsenal, like a shooter at a gun-range, ready to have some fun with the firepower at their disposal. Opening track, Why Even Try?, is built on some stiff riffing and a music which is dark, the vocal is howling and spoken word at times. Although the driving narrative is the frame upon which the EP’s canvass is placed, there never appears to feel like the narrative is pulling the record in any undue direction.
When No One Believes You is full of sharp staccato guitar stabs and a spoken word delivery reminiscent of the Sleaford Mobs; whereas lead track, How is There Hope? features a fatter guitar sound, supplemented by Palm Reader’s Josh Redrup, who delivers a riff that makes you feel as though you are falling.
At the centre of the EP is When Nobody Cares, a deliberate change in style to a hook-laden, even danceable, song which begs the audience to validate the band’s switch. The Punk/ Indie flavour of this track conjures Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes at their most fluorescent.
The narrative band reject this style after the audience reception is cool and instead go back to the hard and heavy sound that is their preference for But What If This Is. The Best Chance We’ll Get sees the band accepting their moment has passed but there is a moment, hiding late in the song, that suggests otherwise. For there seems to be the vaguest whiff of a Japanese motif toward the end of the track, hinting that the band might find favour in the Land of the Rising Sun.
This Wasn’t Part of the Plan finishes the story with a Torch Song, a dirge of melancholic piano in which the singer tells of his exhaustion at the whole process and his frustration at the audience’s unwillingness to hear them. The final conversation piece has the manager dismayed by the idea that the band are planning a comeback and he is last heard chasing the reporter down the car park.
At first listen, A Story Well Told is an odd mishmash of ideas; but when you embrace the over-arching story concept it all makes sense. It’s angular and difficult to get a grip on without giving it your undivided attention – at least to begin with, but Chapter Nineteen have created a marvellously enveloping record with a relatable thread running through. Here’s hoping life does not imitate art and A Story Well Told finds the audience is deserves.
