There's a practicality that comes out of the songs that Scottish band, The View, played for this and their debut session. There's a man at a bar, who gives sage advice to a young man about learning a trade so that he can be prosperous and safe and able to afford that nice house with a picket fence. There's the sense in "Bunker," that people aren't settling for one another, but they've gotten to be old enough to understand that there's a lot of flattery in someone continuing to be with you, even when it's not the easiest thing to do, even when the waters are rough.
Lead singer, Kyle Falconer, sings, "I'll stay with you/Cause I know how to keep my feet on solid ground," and it's the same as saying that you come home every day because it's the place that's easiest to find in the dark. It's a show of loyalty, one that's not complacent, even if it could feel that way, but more so one of extra strength love - that binding kind that makes you shake. Love's that silly little thing that makes a person sober up. It's what forces most people to get smarter about what they're actually doing. It gives people pause and makes them appreciate the beauty in appreciating what they have. Forester seems to write about the responsibilities that come when the connection is made, or it's roundly confirmed that most everything in life is brusque and flimsy and the clock is doing none of us any favors. It ticks with the same routine for all, never slowing and never picking up speed. It is our very regiment and it is our lone motivation to make everything else as good as can be.
It's why, on the group's just released new album, "Cheeky For A Reason," which is already out in the United Kingdom, there are still moments of whimsy, where the young man who was told to take up a trade and that that is what would lead him to all of the things that he'd ever be capable of imagining, decides that he will ask his love if she will chase happiness with him - getting into a boat with him and sail away to see some sights. They could look back, but why would they? They've still got each other. They're still on that solid ground that they've been thinking of and they can write their own dance songs on that guitar that's never been played before.
*Essay originally published December, 2012