In every set of brothers there always one that is serious, introverted and emotional, that ponders hope, seeks for more and thinks like a poet, whilst the other brother is mischeivous, cheeky, attention-seeking, extroverted and likes to tease his sibling's personal boundaries. Newly solo Will Butler is the latter personality and from his sugar-high performances as mulit-instrumentalist of Montreal indie-art- rock band Arcade Fire it could be guessed how he would tackle the song-writing and lyrical duties of his own individual project.

 

Lead single Anna is testament to his attention-defecit moods and his almost-sadistic perspective of life and death. "Where do you think they'll hide your bones? Out on the field or all alone." ponders Butler. He goes on to rationalize crime: "take out the knife, sharpen it twice and get all the money." Yet it's performed with such a clever device of contrast; jolly and hedonistic composition. Barbershop scatting makes the sound instantly addictive and the keyboard bass draws you into his disneyland of instrumentation all conducted at his finger tips from: rapid terror piano, squeaky saxophone and random pitch highs into Justin Hawkins-territory falsetto. This is made all the more glee by the music video of Butler's free-spirited dance moves a kin to Radiohead's Lotus Flower, Black Keys' Lonely Boy or Dutch Uncles's Flexxin.

 

Although nothing quite reaches the creativity of Anna, Will Butler's debut is just as electic, just as cheeky as the single as well as an overall passion for omnivorous rock playfulness. This is Will Butler's policy and it's available for us to hear.

 

Currently adopting a Kurt Cobain hair-over-the-eyes style, Butler also borrows his grunge on Take My Side, which is also mixed with garage and indie rock and feels like a wilder version of Jake Bugg's Lightning Bolt. A similar gritty sound is found on Something's Coming but it's joined by a funky bass, boogie woogie piano and experimental electric guitar distortion which makes it feel a little too claustrophobic and confusing. Witness is also very energetic and in a hurry to catch the last train and it's dramatic nature paired with the call and answer doo-wop backing singers makes it feel like a missing song from the musical Grease. This is all before the squeaky christmas saxophone kicks in.

 

The B52's style of Doo-Wop female vocals are a consistently great asset to the album on many occasions, they help create a euphoric atmosphere on the John Lennon-piano-rock Finish What I Started,  increase intensity on Something's Coming and add another layer to the Rock Lobster-esque surreal acoustic rock on Son of God. 

 

Will's voice is not completely different from his brother Win with the closest similarities in tone and word pronouncation being on Son of God and Witness but he likes to add the occasional eccentricties including Prince immitations on Something's Coming along with laughing, which also appears on What I Want.

 

However the most notable difference between the two is the songwriting. You won't get beautifully meaningful lyrics such as Win Butler's "My body is cage that keeps me dancing with one I love" (My Body Is A Cage). Instead you get humour about death and religion mixed with a constant sense of disorientation that warrants a compass: "Someone tell me what my name is, I wrote it down and I lost track of the paper", (Finish What I Started) and "I'll buy you a pony. I know a great recipe for Pony Macarony," (What I Want).

 

For the all surreal lyrics, energy and bizaareness, Butler shows off his most soft and calmer side on Sing To Me. A piano-ballad with echoey ripples and an electric organ and intimate lyrics that are forlorn and sorrowful and ironically put out that he is "tired and I don't wanna talk no more." His energy finally reached 0% battery life. With this slow paced inclusion and the short length of the album, his policy might still be slightly vague but this is his first choice of freedom and the details will be ironed out in future propositions.