‘Widows’, from Chapel Club’s new EP ‘The Wintering’ is a pretty massive progression for them, production-wise – which is a pretty mean feat considering that they’ve not really released much from which to progress… It feels much dreamier than the spike of their singles, the pace slowed to a somnambulistic drift, guitars all a-shimmer, and Lewis’ voice is treated with distortion and echo. It’s all with the effect of Chapel Club shedding the Joy Division-isms and moving purely into the heavy pop atmospherics of Echo And The Bunnymen. It’s special. And not in that way.
‘Widows’ is perhaps the finest song on the EP; a stately, glittering eight-minute stroll that never once drags, mostly because it dramatically bursts into a wind tunnel of guitars when it hits the chorus. It’s got an outstandingly odd solo, which sounds like a jealous guitar trying to choke a cheating synth, but it’s Bowman’s voice that really does the business. Unlike on the rest of the EP, here it’s left alone to richly bellow out and melt your bones. “Oh darling… I want you to want me, again,” he mourns, with considerable conviction. He’s turning into a pretty impressive frontman, is this guy; having told NME earlier this year that “The tree of arrogance bears the finest fruit,” it seems the cocky bugger may be right.
