Oh Wonder - Livewire

The first of every month should really be re-named ‘Oh Wonder Day’ because that’s when the internet-busting  pop duo upload another chilled to perfection three or minutes of loveliness to the world wide web and thousands of people suddenly feel romantically gooey again. Latest offering Livewire has been out there for two days now and already the Soundcloud embed is full of comments that virtually all say some sort of variation of the word ‘beautiful.’ 

What must the band themselves be thinking? After all it’s not like they’re new to this game. Yet in the last 8 months they’ve racked up over 9 million plays on Soundcloud and have sold out all of their forthcoming live shows. Under her alter-ego Layla, Josephine was doing reasonably well with songs such as Oh My Love and Smokestacks (remember when we first featured her here in January 2013 on New Year’s Day with her tune New Year?), but nothing like this. 

Somehow the Oh Wonder project has connected with people more than anything else Josephine or  Anthony have ever worked on.This is a great example of the old cliché if at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Oh Wonder has become a role model for any dispirited band that are scratching their heads wondering why it hasn’t ‘happened’ for them. So the question is, why has it done so for this London duo? 

The answer, of course, is that there is no straightforward answer. But when you listen to Livewire what is clear is that the music is based around many old fashioned things that still hold artists in good stead for the longer term over fashion, buzz and the like; quality songcraft, talent and an ability to pen a tune that touches on an emotional level without ever being so heavy or claustrophobically deep that it scares off the masses. There was probably a bit of good timing and luck involved as well, but who would want to deny an artist a bit of luck, when what they're doing is bringing such pleasure? Certainly not here at Breaking More Waves.

The Oh Wonder album will be released on the 4th September. The next song will, inevitably, be released on the first of next month.

Oh Wonder - Livewire