Written: 24th September 2024
Public Service Broadcasting have carved a niche in the musical firmament through their idiosyncratic amalgamation of auditory and, on stage, visual ephemera. Through the repurposing of archival soundbites, documentary footage, they transmute their relics into aural tapestries. During the band’s fifteen-year journey through history, they have scaled Everest, confronted Nazism, explored the cosmos, examined societal struggle and remembered those who lost their lives on the Titanic. Now the band turn their gaze to a more personal type of heroism. The Last Flight concerns itself with the final voyage of Amelia Earhart.
J. Willgoose, Esq. admits that Amelia Earhart took over his imagination via a circuitous route. “I wanted to do a woman-focused story, because most of the archive we have access to is overwhelmingly male,” he says. “Her bravery and her aeronautical achievements were extraordinary, but her philosophy and the dignity that she had… she was an outstanding person. The final flight is the spine of the journey: the story jumps off at different points, and examines different facets of her personality, her relationship with her husband, her attitude to flying, her attitude to existing, really.”
Over nine tracks, Public Service Broadcasting capture a love of speed and freedom alongside the admirable spirit of adventure that made Earhart such a fascinating figure. Opening track I Was Always Dreaming opens with sombre piano and deep synths that create a feeling of melancholic grandeur that hints at the tragedy to come. However, as the track develops, spoken word flutters in the background and the sound swells. Ultimately this leads towards a tranquil atmosphere and a feeling of anticipation grows within the music. As is often the case with the band, it is an understated but seductive first track that gently lulls the listener with beguiling mood and aura rather than fireworks or flare.
Towards The Dawn increases the tempo and raises the pulse from its first moments. With an increase in the amount of spoken word that accompanies the music, the attitude towards flying and life that was such a part of Amelia Earhart’s character begins to take shape. J. Willgoose, Esq explains, “The actor Kate Graham read Amelia, not as an impersonation. It was more about finding her own way through the voice, to inhabit the persona. We were recreating archive, reverse engineering it, which we have done a bit in the past.” This approach was adopted because relevant contemporary audio sources were either non-existent or, like certain somewhat wooden screen interviews with Earhart in the thirties, unsuitable. Vibrant and colourful, Towards The Dawn combines energetic guitar, an intriguing bass line and the insistent effervescence of Wrigglesworth’s drums.
An emphatically triumphant track, The Fun Of It covers some ground not previously explored by the band as they toy with the playful rhythms. Despite the pop influenced nature of the song, there is a stark clarity to the lyrics that highlights Earhart’s philosophy of, “I do it because I want to.” I want to feel it / To know the limit / In every moment, in every minute / I see the clouds like icebergs / Because I want to / Take my plane across the sea / That’s what I do. The perfectly pointed vocals on the track are from Andreya Casablanca. J. Willgoose, Esq. comments on her contribution, “I can’t think of anyone better than Andreya to add the kind of spirit, bounce and just pure melody that this song called for. She’s a wonderful foil for Amelia’s determination, her bravery and her honesty. “I do it because I want to - isn’t that a good enough reason?” The song is an attempt to sum up that kind of attitude in musical form.” Midway through the track, powerfully reverberating guitar adds some weight to proceedings, showing that although there was a joyous nature to the aviatrix, there was also a serious pilot who always strove for more.
A contender for the best track on the album, The South Atlantic (featuring Kate Stables of This Is The Kit on vocals) exquisitely illustrates a particular moment of Amelia Earhart’s life, charting, as it does, the story of her third successful transatlantic flight (and her first south of the Equator). Try to aim / Higher, further, slower / Heavens opened / Sun and doldrums / Blots out everything / Blots out everyone / Heavens opened / Sun and ocean. On a song that gloriously captures the feeling of movement, flight and freedom, the gentle, rolling percussion and delightfully bucolic feel bring a beautiful serenity to the album, essential in telling the full story. Supporting the band, Carl Broemel’s delicate textures on e-bow and steel guitar and the majestic strings of the London Contemporary Orchestra, add wondrous pastel textures to the overall sound.
In musical contrast, first single from the album, Electra is a soaring panegyric to Amelia Earhart’s aircraft. With the feel of earlier Public Service Broadcasting, the band deliver a high-octane, pulsating electronic track (complete with a lyrical throwback to Progress from Every Valley) that oozes and radiates vitality and vivacity. A tribute to the technological advancements of the age as much as Earhart herself, there is a bright optimism driven home by J F Abraham’s intoxicating bass line. Although it focuses on the final voyage of quite possibly the most famous aviator of them all, the album is not all melancholic and sombre. In the words of J. Willgoose, Esq. “There’s adventure, freedom, the joy of being alive. The reason why she wanted to fly was to find the beauty in living – ‘to know the reason why I’m alive, and to feel that every minute.’ The flight did fail, but she was right. Of all the people we’ve written about, I have the deepest respect and admiration for her.”
Arabian Flight slows the tempo a little but retains the feeling of movement. Allowing the spoken word to tell the story, the contemplative keyboard motifs, effulgent strings and hypnotic percussion inexorably invite the listener along on the flight. Public Service Broadcasting are masters of creating mesmerising music and auras from seemingly simple nuances. It is impossible not to be drawn into the worlds they create and therefore easy to conjure enticing visuals in one’s mind. As on tracks such as All Out (Every Valley), Public Service Broadcasting certainly have the ability to inject a little savagery into their music when needed and Monsoons builds in threatening steps until eventually the storm takes hold. There is something of Horsell Common and The Heat Ray (from Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds) in the ominous bass tones of the central section, the band thereby adding another dimension to The Last Flight.
Penultimate track, A Different Kind Of Love features EERA on vocals and delves into Earhart’s progressive attitude to her marriage to George Putman. You won’t be able / To love me like they do / I need a different kind of life / A different of love / Play free, carelessly / Far away / From this cage / From constraints / From me. Tastefully restrained during the first half, there is a deep humanity to EERA’s vocal delivery and by including a track such as this, Public Service Broadcasting ensure they reveal something about the person behind the pilot. Following a solo that serves as a segue to the second half of the song, A Different Kind Of Love becomes more celebratory and Willgoose displays his aptitude for tasteful and alluring guitar.
Ending the album with the ambient nine-minute Howland, Public Service Broadcasting pay their respects to Amelia Earhart with a track imbued with an irrevocable sense of finality: lamenting, mournful and dolorous. Initially painting the picture of a deserted ocean through the use of sparkling synths and elegiac strings, Howland is, understandably, the most emotive track on the album. Constructed over tender orchestral swirls and eddies, we distantly hear the urgent transmissions and the replies of US Navy radio operators that Earhart never received. As the listener is left to imagine the final moments of Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, the music heartbreakingly recedes to silence, accompanied by the last spoken words of the album. After a minute, we hear birds, waves and wind courtesy of the US Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. “We, as listeners, make it to the island, even if she didn’t,” says J. Willgoose. Esq, wistfully.
Varied, subtle and multi-layered in approach, the album is a wonderful tribute to a public figure that lived her life to the full. With The Last Flight, Public Service Broadcasting have once again produced an album of inherent beauty and tasteful elegance. Their unswerving ability to capture and illustrate historical events through music continues to entrance.
The Last Flight is released on 4th October 2024.