Album Review: My First Tooth - Territories

My First Tooth seem to have been about forever, always the perpetual support act to their ever so slightly more popular friends bands but always retaining quite a low profile. This is by no means meant as a dig; it’s just worth noting to those unfamiliar with the Northampton four-piece, that with the current trend for overly-twee indie-folk My First Tooth aren’t bandwagon jumpers, they just quite like creating beautifully melancholy, folky pop songs and have done for some time. This is no hastily thrown together flash in the pan band and it really shows throughout the record. The amount of care and attention that has gone into this record is charming, the songs are delicately arranged and crafted lovingly.

It must be noted that this record is quite, well, cutsey. When reviewing the record I listened to it near constantly via our stream here at Alter The Press and no physical copy to hand. However, considering how twee the record is (for evidence look no further than the glockenspiel led intro) I can imagine preorders came with your choice of hand-made doily with a vinyl that only played on Victorian gramophones in a sleeve made from pressed flowers. Once again, not a dig (I shouldn’t have to write that twice in one review, sorry), because it gives the album as a whole a wonderful character. Whether the tender, slow-burning, intro to 'North Sea part II' or the pounding crescendo that is 'Dubrovnik' or even the more upbeat 'Orchards' this is record is pitched perfectly to achieve that elusive goal of taking the listener on a journey.

I see no reason why this record would not appeal to any fan of the current crop bigger folk acts (I’m talking Mumford & Sons big), ‘Sleet & Snow’ is a festival anthem in waiting. However, the real strength of this record is that it’s got enough charm and song-writing flair to stand squarely on it’s own two feet and see My First Tooth grow in the bonafide headliners they’ve been threatening to become for so long.

4/5

'Territories' by My First Tooth is available now on Alcopop Records.

Purchase 'Territories' here.

Stream 'Territories' here.

My First Tooth on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.

Barney Dufton