It’s been a ridiculously long time waiting, there’s been a name change, member changes and a massive amount of setbacks along the way, but the debut album from The People The Poet, ‘The Narrator’ is finally here.
The album clocks in at fifteen tracks (including interludes) and at around an hour in length, you are going to have to have a sit down for a listen, but in general, it’s worth it. It’s clear to see that a lot of effort has been put into the record, there were probably doubts within the band that ‘The Narrator’ would even get to see the light of day, but it’s to their testament that they’ve stuck with it and released a genuinely unique album. It can be quite easy to fuck up a concept album, but with the subject matter found within ‘The Narrator,’ The People The Poet had no option but to take it as seriously as they could and do the stories submitted to the band justice.
Things get started with the harmonious ‘People’ before really finding its stride in the gigantic ‘Sing’ key change and all. The People The Poet certainly know their way around a good melody and the best song on the album is found in the form of ‘Stabilisers (I Will Be)’ a song which tells the story of a man dealing with new found fatherhood in the most positive of ways. The song builds before reaching a magnificent conclusion that’ll bring the fuzzies to the most hardened of souls.
Things remain at a solid pace, ‘Take’ really shines in its chorus and ‘Being Human’ is another outstanding song which really showcases just how good The People The Poet can be. ‘The Narrator’ ends on the highest of points with ‘Not For Now’ providing that sing-along, atmospheric and epic ending the album needs.
Overall, The People The Poet should be proud, yeah this album probably should have been out a long time ago but the point is, it’s here now and it should be celebrated. The band have done a wonderful thing by putting a lot of peoples harrowing incidents to song they’ve given back what is for me one of the best coping mechanisms there is… Music. I hope The People The Poet kick on from here and start fulfilling their potential and momentum they built up during their Tiger Please days. It’s not too late, but with an extremely accomplished new album finally out in the open, their time needs to be now.