An occasional roundup of tracks I can’t get enough of, by bands I’ve somehow not got round to seeing live yet.
Drastic Park – Shelter
The snobs will sniff at this note-perfect impression of Blink-182 (right down to the Ned’s Atomic Dustbin influences), but to hell with those posers. This is teeth-rattlingly good fun, a sub-three-minute sprint of endorphins and pogoing that will brighten your day. Anyone who’s against that is probably against puppies or pizza or something, and so will deserve everything they get.
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Rachel Caddy – Trams
This public transport-based lovesong starts off like the twee little number you think it’s going to be, but the way the song develops is just a joy. It gradually accelerates from a standing start into something grand and lovely, with some magical vocal acrobatics and its rhythms turning from the clacking tick of a clock into the heavy rumble of steel wheels on city streets.
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Fragile Animals – Only Until It’s Over
Fragile Animals fit in somewhere around Ride’s spot on the shoegaze spectrum, with some humungous drums pounding away like waves on a cliff, the guitars slinging around like bolts of lightning, and the breezy vocal flitting around madly amidst the roar. Nicely done.
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Merpire – Heavy Feeling
An oddly confident song given that it’s about having no confidence, but this pretty little sparkler is stretching at the seams with charm. Before the vocal switches up a couple of gears in the back half, it chugs along like a dog at heel, and there are some delightful lyrical flourishes. For a song about being weighed down, it’s light of touch and fast on its feet.
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Primo! – Perfect Paper
Primo!’s new one is primitive, hypnotic, lo-fi where every note screams something intriguing at you. These are the barest of bones – plus the occasional reverby yelp – but it’s a heady concoction. Disconcerting but hard to stop paying attention to.
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PLANET – Imaginary
It feels like Planet want to write sensitive, well-read indie records like Mercury Rev but just can’t help but strut downstage with their chest out. It’s like an alternate-world Oasis, where the Gallaghers were obsessed with Granddaddy records instead of dad rock. What a pleasant universe that would sound like.
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