Radio Wars (album) - Promotion, Release and Reception

Promotion, Release and Reception

After recording Radio Wars, Howling Bells returned to touring in July 2008. They incorporated new songs from the album into their live sets. The band performed at festivals over the next couple of months, including O₂ Wireless, Latitude, and Lovebox Weekender. Howling Bells also supported The Duke Spirit and Mercury Rev. They headlined a string of shows in March 2009 supported by The Joy Formidable and Chew Lips. The group played at V Festival in Australia, before returning to the UK to support Razorlight. In May and June, they joined Pete Yorn as well as Snow Patrol, to support Coldplay for the third leg of the North American Viva la Vida Tour.

Radio Wars was released on 2 March 2009 in the UK, which was followed by release dates in several additional countries. A limited edition of the album was issued by both Independiente and Hostess, on the day of the release in their respective nations. It was presented as a digipak that included a bonus live disc containing seven tracks of a Howling Bells performance recorded at The Paradiso, in Amsterdam, in November 2008. The band played a free instore show at retail outlet Fopp Records, in Covent Garden, on the day of the UK release. Later that week they played another free show, this time sponsored by NME, at Punk in Soho. The event was broadcast live, and tickets were exclusive to winners of an online competition. The album spent four weeks on the Australian Albums Chart and peaked inside the Top 30. It made an appearance for three weeks on the UK Albums Chart and peaked just outside the Top 50. It did not chart in any other nation. The album was recognised on three different end-of-the-year lists.

Radio Wars was met with mixed reviews from those within the music industry. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 67/100 based on 16 reviews. Album of the Year is a website that applies the same system of standardised scoring, this time using a fixed number of twelve mainstream publications as sources. Radio Wars obtained an average score of 60/100 based on five reviews for a final ranking of 268 out of 323 potential candidates for, "Album of the Year".

Positive reviews came from Andrew Leahey of Allmusic, who applauded the inclusion of string and brass instruments, and referred to the album as, "truthfully hard to resist." Estella Hung of PopMatters, praised the song, "Nightingale", for its ability to assemble itself out of nothing but Juanita's crooning. She declared: "Radio Wars is almost perfect to a fault." Camilla Pia of The Fly, applauded Grech-Marguerat's production, and expressed positive feelings towards the extra instrumentation. Lisa Wright of Subba Cultcha, commented: "Howling Bells still have a way with a melody pretty much unrivalled at the moment." She went on to say: "their second effort is a gorgeously, spine-tingling one honed to almost perfection." Greg Rose of Virgin Music, commended Howling Bells for their distinct songwriting, calling it, "both formidable and peculiar." He asserted: "They are possibly the best thing to come out of Australia since Nicole Kidman."

Less favourable reviews came from Darren Harvey of musicOMH, who called it: "unremarkable and disposable as a Domino's pizza box," and compared it to US college radio of the mid-90's. He also added: "Lyrics that James Blunt would turn up his piggy little nose at a mangling of the present participle that would make Conor Oberst choke on his granola." Andrew Winistorfer of Prefix Magazine: "a milquetoast selection of mid-tempo stadium anthems," though he found some positivity in "Golden Web", and claimed that the high point of the album was the soaring chorus of "Digital Hearts". He ended by retorting: "a featureless product that neglects the band’s distinct former character." Corban Goble of Adequacy, had good things to say about the instrumentation and commented that the record had a great feel, though he felt that the album was missing any kind of strong hook or melody, and that the band lacked passion.