Album Notes

'The Big Adventure' is the debut album from The Dawn Chorus (UK).

The Dawn Chorus (UK) make intelligent pop-indie-folk. Lyrics you'll take to heart, melodies you'll want to hum to your milkman.

Press reviews:

Planet Sound - 9/10

Former PS demo faves come good on a country-rock record that's wonderful because it evokes their native Hants as much as wide-open Americana.

Everything from Goldrush and Hobotalk to Bright Eyes and Wilco flits among the Evans brothers' movingly optimistic vocals, unafraid to be as big and bold as they can make them.

It's about full lives and finding the intimate music arrangements to match. Utterly gorgeous.

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Rock Sound - 8/10

A heartfelt and intensely tuneful marriage between folk and indie, The Dawn Chorus write charming mini-anthems that will undoubtedly propel them to alt-stardom.

Sounding like Wilco barn-dancing with a latter-day Supergrass. 'The Big Adventure' is a country-pop classic waiting to happen.

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Clash Music

The delicate lyrical delivery and solo acoustic guitar at the beginning of the opening title track easily draws comparison to a band like Bright Eyes very early on.

While the music is joyful, the lyrics tell a different and mournful story, one of death and the contemplation of suicide. This juxtaposition of the bare honesty of the lyrics and the jaunty style of the music is a staple of this debut; 'The Big Adventure' alludes to death itself, and the album's subject matter is of a primarily sorrowful nature.

This album is sure to bring The Dawn Chorus the attention they deserve, hopefully without an adverse effect on their beautifully melancholic song writing.

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Stereokill 4.5/5

Recently name-checked by Frank Turner in an interview with Stereokill as “my new favourite band in the whole world ever”, Portsmouth’s The Dawn Chorus have a lot to live up to. But, as I put their debut album on this morning, I was determined to listen with an impartial ear and not let anything colour my judgement. So, with no lofty and premature expectations, it was a pleasant surprise to find that debut album The Big Adventure is an intensely listenable record.

From the word go, I found myself captivated. The gentle acoustic strumming of “The Big Adventure Part I”, segues seamlessly into the blaring horns and light guitar of “Part II”. Together, they tell an intensely personal story, superbly compéred by vocalist Kyle Evans.

The Dawn Chorus are an impossible-to-pigeonhole band. The Big Adventure ebbs and flows from acoustic ballads to indie-rock anthems, bound together by some intelligent songwriting and lovely melodies. Above and beyond the conventional rock-band instrumentation lies a more experimental streak that shows its face in the violins and unexpected brass. It’s this intricate musical layering that places the albums head and shoulders above anything else seen on the British indie scene this year.

At times, the album seems to lose its way - the mediocre rock of “Summer of ‘99″ feels like a minor letdown, but it’s quickly rescued by some simply superb songs: “The Hope Will Kill Us” and “Song for Antoinette” are particular gems. Even when Evans’ Britpop drawl occasionally sounds a little lifeless, such moments are fleeting and don’t flaw the album as a whole.

The Dawn Chorus are a band in the very best traditions of indie-folk. With a sound that forged somewhere between Bright Eyes and Murder by Death, this is an infinitely varied and uniquely charming album, with huge re-listening potential and the promise of great things to come.