The Joys of a Natural LIFE

Words: Ollie Hopewell

Photo by Luke Hallett

What is the meaning of life? Having Good Health? Enjoying the Niceties? Well while you can argue about this indefinitely, I can happily tell you the meaning of LIFE – or at least their newest iteration – as I’ve been along for the ride for some time now, watching the Hull-based band as they have shifted their style and method of delivery in such a transient way that their sound has truly become alive in a certain capacity. Once again, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The first time I heard LIFE play, back on a dreary night in late September of 2021, they were very much an alternative indie band shifting from their punk-tinged beginnings to a more industrious and sinister sound; it’s a change you first get a whiff of between their 2017 debut and 2019 sophomore albums, Popular Music and A Picture of Good Health respectively, but the first real paradigm shift was in the band’s 2022 release North East Coastal Town. Going from a high octane and often bratty energy to a deeply introspective and provocative style can be jarring even when done well, but when the Hull four-piece turned their hand to the change something clicked, and it just felt right. From this menacing ever-droning industrial sound it was clear that there was yet another evolution to come, and ABSTRACT/NATURAL is so much more than anyone was expecting it to be.

LIFE will tell you that the album’s title came first, but it’s clear that the cumulative experiences of each member had been pushing the fourth album in this direction for some time. A little refrain here or there, a photo of a hike posted to social media, and a creeping tiredness of daily routine just seemed to seep into a collective consciousness, and it was clear that a return to nature was calling, a call that has very much been answered.

Opening with Wild Grasses, an upbeat call-to-arms to lace up your walking boots and run off into the wilderness, ABSTRACT/NATURAL immediately presents something as trivial as grass and portrays it with a childlike wonder, with frontman Mez Sanders-Green devoting himself to the titular wild grasses and finding belonging within them. It’s folkloric, it’s humble, it’s the joy of seeing a nettle eek its way through the pavement in defiance. The opener is immediately contrasted by the Editors-esqu industrialism of The Dollywaggon, a track bursting with the angst of yesterLIFE reminiscent of Popular Music’s Earthworm. 

Within two tracks we have burst from the factory-made world into nature and reflected on the evolution of the self, leaving known comfort for natural correctness. Within two tracks the call-to-arms has been replicated, this time sang upon natural winds that penetrate the concrete shell of modern life. 

We transform again for Turning In, an electro-pop flavoured tune rife with the quirky lyricism Sanders-Green has made his own, as bassist Lydia Palmeira adds further zest with sombre mixture of bass and backing vocals. Turning In builds and builds before dropping into Thistle Kiss, a romanticisation of the “gun-grey” seas and prickly thistles that still deserve their own admiration and longing. 

Mermaid Feet, one of the two more experimental tracks on the album, opens with a soundscape of birdsong contrasted by a mimicking soft-yet-mechanical synth; it is the gentle climb before cresting the hill with My Yan, a track that pushes you up the ridge to look out across the valleys below, acknowledging the ascent all the while. It’s hitting the Trig Point of The Roaches and seeing Jodrell Bank, seeing Castleton from Mam Tor, catching a glimpse of the Scafell massif from Striding Edge. But more than that, it’s knowing you’ve summited and now the descent back to the unnatural is imminent. 

We begin our descent with the thrashing guitars and drums of Mick Sanders and Stewart Baxter in Drinking Games, the kind of song LIFE have made their own across their discography. It’s this album’s Duck Egg Blue, it’s Half Pint Fatherhood. We’ve stopped smiling at the bee pollinating the foxglove after our mountaintop dinner, and now we’re focusing on the destructive nature of modernity and of the self; we’re at the loneliest part of the return journey, a journey made in near silence amid the realisation that “I’m not myself that much”. Your legs are aching as much as your mind here.

Sun In Nancy is the brutal awakening as your footing slips and you take a slight tumble, jerking you back to reality as you near the finality of your descent. Comparable to fan favourite Bum Hour, the track twists and grooves into a catchy chorus that yearns for sleep, for the day to end before it’s really begun. We’re just packing up the car and heading home, hitting the road to the tune of Buried Giant for the drive home. This is classic LIFE reinvented, tinged with the coolness of The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary, Junip’s Rope and Summit, and TRAAMS’ A House on Fire. Buried Giant is the album’s second longest track, and each second is utilised to perfection; the tension in the build-up, just as the early drop pounds into your brain with waves of joy as the cramp wares off and you ride off into the sunset.

But now the sun has set, and it’s back to the drudge of mundane action.

Ending with Morning Fog, the other of the more experimental tracks on ABSTRACT/NATURAL, the hangover of yesterday's journey is in full swing, and you’ve got to pull yourself out of bed for work. A return to the unnatural home. Our back is once again turned away from the fells and springs we crave, and our gaze is now fixated upon spreadsheets displayed upon some great artificial monolith. 

Morning Fog’s lyrical simplicity is its strength, devoting more to atmosphere and reflection than anywhere else in the album; as the repetition of the chorus fades away, we’re left with a disjointed almost haunting piano piece before the album just sort of ends. That’s it, show’s over, folks. The Wild Grasses seem so distant now as you return to the towering concrete blocks of civilisation, destitute of natural joy. That’s that, until next you venture out into that great beyond, when the album loops, when you flip the vinyl back to side A and reflect on the beauty that this album reflects. 

With ABSTRACT/NATURAL, LIFE have done so much more than create; they’ve cultivated, grown, and shown you what you’re missing. In just 44 short minutes the call to the wilds have been relayed, you’ve been dragged from your office chair, and been kicked up a hill to really breathe in all you’re missing. But then LIFE have held your hand and guided you back to your place of origin, regardless of your desire to return. The sloganeering lyricism remains, but the Solstice-drenched themes make ABSTRACT/NATURAL ebb and flow through you rather than chase you down and pummel you as previous works have. 

The unique perspective of LIFE is still there, and community is so obviously still at the forefront of the band’s modus operandi, but we have transcended into a near genre-less manner of storytelling that is delivered with a confidence and sense of righteousness that both works and sounds better than anyone could’ve dreamed.