I first came across Whitney after sharing Allen Toussaint’s ‘Southern Nights’ with a friend (cheers Spotify), they replied with the Whitney version. Personally, I still put Allens’ version above the Chicagoan boys’, but it set off an interest.
‘No Woman’ is the track you’ll know. It’s the defining sound of Whitney they haven’t really eclipsed but continued to build their output around. Ever developing the arrangements of horns, the licks and grooves and Julien Ehrlich’s falsetto vocals – one YouTube commenter described them as Kermit’s band.
The recent release ‘Forever Turned Around’ is a continuation of the themes previously covered, the ephemeral passing of time, girlfriends and days. It is a tighter version of the first, I look forward to the third.
If the sound is eternal, how can it be ephemeral? Endless repetition of scenes which are timeless, immediately recognisable and therefore short in duration. Good bands seem to fit into a groove and keep playing it, improving it, hoping you don’t get bored of it.
A recent interview with the New Yorker had Ehrlich and Kakacek decrying indie. No one wants to be in an indie band anymore, we’re still reeling from the landfill times. They also say they’re not too keen on being ‘nostalgia indie’, or ‘breezy indie’.
“We’ve been drifting apart for some time.” / “I feel like I’m holding onto a place in your heart that’s long gone.”
I’m not sure about breezy, but nostalgia and yearning seem woven into Whitney’s way of words. Let’s leave the labels out of it and think about the aspiration to separate from the scene they were born through. Any real detachment from this old way is a pyrrhic victory, as you might now call them softbois, rather than hipsters.
Playing live they’re a wholesome sound. What would you expect from analogue instruments, horns and that sweet frog voice? They sound like Chicago, not the Chicago of Frankie Knuckles, but the Illinois of Sufjan Stevens. the Levon Helme influence is apparent as the blues of Toussaint.
Whitney play the Roundhouse on the 29th of November.
