Let Em' Talk: A track-by-track guide to Real Farmer's new album 'Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right'

 

Raucous four piece Real Farmer hail from the northern Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and returned recently with new album Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right. The area is renowned as a hotbed for intelligent, independent, ass kicking Rock n'Roll in the Netherlands that rivals anything coming out of the country's more famous cities. It's a spirit that is infused in the band's new album, with they themselves calling the record for '..people who are introspective but socially aware at the same time'.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right crackles with an energy that finds itself floating around the same space occupied by the likes of Hot Snakes, Mission to Burma and New York CBGBs cool, but doesn't hold back from adding an occasional, deliciously melodic pop hook into the mix. An album with broader sonic horizons than Real Farmer had ventured to previously on debut Compare What's There; it finds a band starting to hit its stride and lose its breath in equal measure. It's a delicate balance that Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right straddles with increased aplomb. 

For further depth on this excellent new album, here is a breakdown of  Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right track-by-track. 

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1) Missing Link

A thrashy, stop-start opener and a call to arms. We get drops, which lead into builds, supported by playground chant vox: in fact, is that Richard Hell? Piratical music in sound and feel. Real Farmer: ‘Not all songs are punk songs, but everything is written in this spirit.’

2) 9 Till Not Alright

Yet again, a track chock-full of declamations and word pictures that border on the abstract. “We can join a force together / make a new dawn come”, well, yes, we can… An open-stringed thrum of clanking, metallic, thin-sounding guitars is ably supported by busy tick-tick drumming that sits on top of the song.

3) IDKTS

A change in feel: heralded by a thick, opaque wall of guitars and steady thud of drums, the rhythm’s steady character adds considerably to the track. The changes of mood - experienced by sudden drops in chord and changes of texture - are pronounced. Watch out for the reverb of the guitar literally winding the song down at the end.

Photo by NICK HELDERMAN

4) Sob Story

We are told the singer will “Go back to the one I know”, an action mirrored in the most traditional song structure thus far, but still enmeshed in swirls of grating, raking guitar. Doubled vocals add some presence. A short, pithy number, clocking in at two-and-a-half minutes.

5) System

You’ll get everything thrown at you here, trust me. A sotto voice and doleful guitar leads the track in. Drums add a sympathetic accompaniment. Does it have something of The Sound in Spirit? Maybe. After a simple enough beginning the melody broadens out and incorporates a few pleasing chord patterns that joust with each other. Then, a sudden switch in mood and a driving guitar riff kicks the song into another gear, which then morphs into a gallop that is only halted by the sound of a bomb detonating. Goodness gracious. It’s crude but effective, and not looking to win prizes for subtlety.

6) Settle

A meaty bass line walks us into another campside exhortation. The lyrics and a replying chorus talk of revolution, and ask us to, “watch your scrolling”... The track is a basic, stripped down,bass-and-guitar grumble with an appealingly cocky character.

Photo by NICK HELDERMAN

7) Waste Away

Again, we hear an abrupt switch from a slow riff to a fast, guitar-driven melody. Like elsewhere on Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right, the lyrics are chucked out like statements; some reach us over the racket. And the listener can sympathise with this vocalised therapy, courtesy of lines such as: “Desensitised/ I can’t take it! / Wastin’ away / You make a team so perfect / It’s a circus!”. Watch out for another abrupt ending.

8) Heart Out

A rollicking number that was set to safely tumble through its allotted two minutes without incident, but is suddenly on snagged a slightly jarring guitar line that lets the vocals a moment to soliloquise. Then we are back in the fast lane. This happens a couple of times. The fast passages are a thrilling mix of ‘60s beat and proto punk and the rhythm keeps pace and compliments all these changes. An awful lot happens, it feels.

9) Beggars Hymn

The dubby elements that start the track smuggle in a patient and melodic song with a counter vocal. Probably the most poppy track, the singalong melody of which has something of mid-eighties indie. Drumming again is incredibly supple and supports all the varying activity.. Real Farmer are a band who trade in contrasts and surprising twists of mood.

                                         

10) The Mass

A simple guitar and bass construct, again propped up by the drums. We hear a mix of tempos and charged emotions: and at this point we can say there is a lot of doubt in these songs: they deal in a mix of bravado and pensiveness. A slow, thoughtful end, using a spoken word soliloquy balanced against a soft backing sigh of a vocal.

11) Run By Animals

A slow start with Marrit Meinema taking on vocal duties and a softer melody which skips and jumps now and again for effect. The poppier side of the band comes to the fore. No more grandstanding: the band lay down a cool, Stereolab-style groove, and the abrupt stop the band employs a lot on this LP doesn’t interrupt the track too much. The coolest and most accessible track on the record.

12) Judas

The longest track, clocking in at around six minutes, is saved for the last. The warm guitar jangle and laidback manner found in Run By Animals is also found here initially; the melody holds on to its slightly abstract quality even when the track picks up pace after a minute. And the expected drop, Real Farmer’s party trick, is actually sweeter when it comes, and the attendant guitar harmonics are very pleasing. Which can make the hollers of “Judas” seem at odds with the rest. After four minutes the track starts to steadily build with the drums adding as a patient and experienced guide to the rest; almost like a sheepdog corralling a flock of ewes. The end, with the synth and supporting chorus is almost elegiac and the soft ending comes as a pleasant surprise.

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Real Farmer enter the UK phase of their European tour in early June with the dates below. You can buy Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right, along with other records and merch from HERE