WU LYF and These New Puritans

Having the opportunity to see WU LYF live is somewhat of an almost dream-like experience. The show is like nothing I have ever experienced before,and how a great live show should be. The band is already well known for it’s preference for being heard and not seen, and they carry this over into their live shows.
The first few minutes of the show, members of WU LYF are onstage, but cannot be seen, due to all of the light being out. It was almost a surreal experience, to be in a room with thousands of fans and the band performing, but with no light, just sound to lead you thru.The sound is hard to describe, and hard to not love. WU LYF tend to consider their brand of music as “heavy pop”, but I think that there style truly has no label.
One of the best parts of this band is there powerful and meaningful lyrics, delivered over infectious tunes. When you are experiencing them live, you feel the music and the lyrics quite soulfully, so that the message touches you as much as the music. The band itself seems to want the music to shine, more than them, and is delivered during their live performance.

These New Puritans have backed off a little with their latest release, the lovely "Field of Reeds." If die-hard fans were expecting the lavish production typical of TNP's previous endeavors, they were in for a surprise, but now that they've let go of some the artifice (children's choir, anyone?) I've fully converted.
Brixton Electric in London isn't exactly a dream venue, but it does lend the show some intimacy and mood was the order of the night. From their opener, "Spiral," it was clear that the addition of Portuguese jazz singer Elisa Rodrigues has seasoned the band.
Her sultry vocals are the perfect complement to Jack Barnett's soaring, if sometimes a bit mumbly, performances. He's still at the center of the band, somehow managing to lead vocally while holding down the rhythm on bass. Brother George bangs it out, maybe blending in a little but definitely present, while Tom Hein runs from synth to sequencer in a frenzied dash for some elusive vision only he can see. The standout of the night for me was "Attack Music." Aptly named, the song somehow seems simultaneously classical and post-apocalyptic.
It has an anthem-like beat under Elisa's big, beautiful voice, but I still sort of felt like I should bow my head or kneel or something. These musicians can be surprisingly romantic in the midst of some big brass and serious wailing. I wouldn't have been surprised if the building had burst, spilling the haunting melodies out into traffic.