Album Review: Falling and Laughing – Spacejunk Solarpunk

If you name yourself after an iconic song by Orange Juice, expectations of indie fans are likely to be high. You won’t be disappointed by Falling and Laughing’s Spacejunk Solarpunk album.

Inspired by the solarpunk philosophy – a holistic movement that envisages a sustainable, optimistic future where humanity lives in harmony with nature – Spacejunk Solarpunk is realistic about the present but gives us glimpses of a possible better way to live.

Taking the listener from talk of ginnells to adventures in Doggerland and space, via explorations of linear time and very fast trains, Falling and Laughing allow themselves a vast canvas, yet the album retains an intimacy that is fresh and engaging.

The seven minutes and counting of The Band Got Out Of Hand makes a strong and stunning statement for the album. Indie pop, especially the variety that would loosely fit under the Sarah and Subway umbrella, is not known for clocking in at such length.

It doesn’t outstay its welcome, because it tells a strong story and underlines that narration with tonal shifts in tempo and genre that semaphore the ebbs and flows within a band. As it reaches its end, peace and harmony are restored, the turmoil along the way leaving the track sounding stronger.

Just like featured track Shinkansen, the album whizzes by, full of movement, blurring the boundaries between childhood memories, ideals for living, and adventures to space, under the North Sea and up to the cold realms of the Arctic.

Ending as it begun, the album treats us to another opus that takes us to the cosmos via Spaceflight To Jan Mayen. The imagery of the track is so strong, the words so vivid, that you can see the journey in your mind, which for is always a sign of a great song.

Falling and Laughing have been performing together for twenty years, but it is only now that they have released their debut LP. Maybe that wait has allowed them to create a series of songs that orbit round each other, as do the individual performances.

The duo create a sound that is complex and cohesive, and offers a positive vision for the future. The take inspiration from a very British, very 80’s approach to indie/guitar music, adapt it to the present. Whether it’s on record or live, Falling and Laughing offer a starling vision of the future, and make the present a lot more bearable. As likely to appeal to fans of Porcupine Tree as Belle & Sebastian, it might have taken them two decades to get here, but the destination is definitely worth the journey.

Spacejunk Solarpunk came out on the 14th of March and is available in digital and black vinyl formats on Bandcamp. Falling and Laughing play The Victoria in Birmingham on the 14th of May. For ticket details and other listening alternatives for the album, check out the band’s Instagram and Facebook feeds, or website.