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A nice raucous LP; with that screamo element, seemingly much beloved of Belgian bands. A stomp box, overloaded semi-acoustic guitars and the sort of wailing, screeching harpy vocals that emanate from the back of the school bus are the main ingredients here.
There’s not a lot of subtlety inherent in any of the record; Cool Kids is about going out into town, and not being late about it: (this message is repeated over and over again) and Gloomy Face and the Oh Oh Band is a simple, unfettered tale of teenage lust. Fair enough.
Still, it’s fun stuff and the saving grace is the enthusiasm that is literally smeared all over this record. There’s fun in the titles too. This is High Art is a very caustic title linked to a very bitchy tale that just screams jealousy and competition. As does Zero One. We all instantly recognise them. And 90’s Dream is doubtless a precursor of the next fad (wow the 1990’s were great and I was a prime mover in it, here’s some nostalgia you can buy blah blah)… Sometimes the mid-tempo tracks (Lately and Nova Express) are the most powerful, maybe it’s the space the listener is allowed, maybe it’s the chugging Velvets/La Düsseldorf rhythms that are allowed to develop.
Elsewhere, the band’s chugging stomp is best developed on the “absurdly basic” White Light, which is a stop-start take on Virginia Plain and all the more charming for it. And I Don’t Care If You Wanna Dance is the LP’s highlight; a dirty guitar smears its presence over a feral bar-room tale of lust and bragging rights.
High octane stuff.