Whitney are a rock band – and a very 70s-sounding one at that – yet they have managed to make their beautifully buoyant blend of country, soul and folk seem not only refreshing but decidedly voguish, too. It’s partly down to drummer and vocalist Julien Ehrlich’s jarring, almost irreverent, falsetto and a slightly arch use of the trumpet (showcased best on wryly jazzy instrumental Red Moon). But mainly it’s a result of the band’s overtly feel-good pop sensibilities. All the songs on the Chicagoans’ 2016 debut Light Upon the Lake are spread thickly with joy; their brashly happy and infectious melodies masking melancholic subject matter (lying “awake in all kinds of darkness” on Polly, for example).
Tonight, that record’s upbeat breeziness is transported intact to the stage – if with a slightly less cartoonishly high register from Ehrlich.
The vibrancy of Whitney’s songwriting and luminous guitar parts is most evident when contrasted with their covers – Bob Dylan’s uncharacteristically jolly Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You just sounds drab in comparison – and even the album’s lovely and languid Sufjan Stevens-esque title track still feels spirited.
Clearly nostalgia plays a part in Whitney’s appeal, but the band’s attitude navigates them away from homage. The idyllic, sun-drenched American past their music inhabits is not treated ironically, exactly, but its blatant sentimentality is both superficially gratifying and exaggerated enough to be self-conscious (they’ve even got a song called Golden Days). There might be an element of Whitney having their cake and eating it – and you could definitely call them a post-ironic band – but when watching them do it is so enjoyable, that’s no bad thing.
