Leeds' voracious pop historians iLIKETRAiNS rightly garnered considerable critical kudos for their magnificent debut album proper, 'Elegies To Lessons Learnt'. A beautifully-realised affair, it married tales of often tragic historical figures (very real in most cases) to some of the most exquisitely broiling rock sounds around today and still the only current boarder it needs to repel is British Sea Power's equally wonderful 'Do You Like Rock Music?'
For new single 'We Go Hunting' iLT dip into the murky past once again and this time it's the crazed hysteria of the infamous Salem Witch Trials firing their imagination. For those of you who haven't read Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible', nineteen alleged witches were accused, trialed in something akin to a kangaroo court and hanged at the hands of Samuel Parris and the church in rural Massachussetts in 1692. As you might imagine, it's ideal subject matter for iLT and indeed our Leeds heroes have tapped into the mood of the time and (re)created the paranoid persecution with some aplomb courtesy of 'We Go Hunting'
Crucially, too, while '...Hunting' possesses all the intensity of their amazing early singles, it's a pocket-sized epic, coming in at around the three and a half minute mark, rather than the ten gripping minutes afforded to 'Before The Curtains Close'. It's still dripping with chromacity, gulfing darkness and the terrible, throbbing beauty of their best work, though, and as soon as the typically rich and charismatic vocal invective wafts in ("I won't rest until these sisters of the devil burn in hell!") you know you're in the presence of greatness once again.
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New 'B'-side 'More Weight' again refers to the Salem Witch Trails, with the song's title being taken from the last words uttered by one Giles Corey, arrested on suspicion of being a Wizard during the hysterical height of the trials. Aware that he would be tried and executed, Corey entered no plea and was sentenced to be slowly crushed to death under a great weight until he either entered a plea or expired first. Inevitably, the latter course of action prevailed and Corey died in defiant agony. This time, iLT catch the mood with a droning, blurred-round-the-edges serenity, some ominously well-chosen words (" and though it bends it never breaks...and mark my words you get what you deserve") and a performance that's notable for its' spooky restraint.
So, to badly paraphrase Arthur Miller, very much a case of seeing Goody Trains with the Devil. And once again, he's given them access to the very best tunes.
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