IT BITES FD: RETURN TO NATURAL

It Bites carved a name for themselves in the 1980s playing progressive music for the synth pop generation - fusing catchy melody with slick musicianship and arrangements. Lead singer and guitarist Francis Dunnery sounded like Nik Kershaw, but he could play sophisticated Holdsworth runs working outside the root key and showcasing a jaw-dropping, lightning legato technique. Albums featured catchy pop songs like 'Calling All the Heroes' alongside fifteen-mintue long epics with complex time and key changes like 'Once Around the World.'

Then as they were on the verge of conquering the United States the band imploded. Dunnery departed and produced a series of lovely, whimsical singer-songwriter albums. His fellow band members faded into session playing before briefly reviving It Bites in the 2010s, John Mitchell replacing Dunnery. They recorded two excellent albums with crafted songs by Mitchell and keyboardist John Beck, then disappeared again. Drummer Bob Dalton finally announced the end of the band earlier this year, seemingly to the suprise of the other band members.

Perhaps it was this that prompted Francis Dunnery to return with this new incarnation of It Bites, who toured (featuring Luke Machin on second guitar) this summer and who have now released this wonderful album. It Bites FD are very much a return to the early formula - carefully crafted pop songs with sophisticated mid-sections or middle eights interspersed with longer numbers. On first listening it sounds Howard Jones simple. Don't be fooled. This is music which deepens with every listen and whose music is not a slave to ostentation to time signature nerdiness.

The album kicks off with 'Turning the Sky Into Fire'. The song starts simply - soft acoustic guitars and intimate singing lull us into Chris Spedding style guitar refrain and lilting chorus which is enriched with multi-layered, soulful harmony vocals and counterpoint. Then the song breaks into a Dunnery guitar solo which teases and cajoles, holds back on the soaring Holdsworth lines and drifts into a rich middle section with some deliciously creative, sparse rhythm and bass playing. It sets the tone for the album. 'Return to Natural' is catchy too, with more delightfully creative rhythm playing and lovely textured vocals. The guitar solo is both emotionally taut and restrained, leaving you pardoxically satisfied, yet wishing Dunnery would unleash some of that lightning technique. Which he finally does on 'While We Were Sleeping', the first song on the album to really showcase the band's musical virtuosity; without appearing delibaretely to showcase it all. The solo dips and ducks along the fretboard - effortless legato runs dancing around the root key with playful inventiveness. And while the song starts off simple and sparse, with tinkling keys and soulful bass, it broadens into delicious complexity, while never losing its melodic heart or feeling self-indlugent.

Dunnery leaves it until the last song to deliver us a magnum opus. 'We're Going to Clean the Sea' takes us on a ride through a series of different musical rooms, from ethereal, reflective soundscapes, into symphonic cascades with orchestral counterpoint and driving, riff-rolling rock. It's a tour de force. The song completes all Return to Natural's lyrical themes - the environmental ruin we are leaving as a legacy for the next generation, their practical determination to better things mixed with a kind of sad nihilism, a call to better our mental health with more contact with the natural world. If much of it is left... The album closes with Dunnery plaintively begging us to come and 'help him clean the sea' before fading into radio noise...

Share this IT BITES review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Lobster Probe
• Report this review (#3123362)
• Buy IT BITES music online with PA partners
• Show all IT BITES MP3/Stream
• Go to IT BITES page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to It Bites FD: Return to Natural page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for IT BITES related discussions