DISTILLER RECORDS
Wyndham Wallace
While Gaz Coombes turns to increasingly mature endeavours, his former Supergrass bandmate appears not to have noticed their old band’s dissolution, instead flaunting the same youthful energy with which they recorded 1995’s I Should Coco. Schtick – despite sometimes sounding like Norway’s Datarock, presumably a symptom of shared adolescent passions – apparently takes Teenage Kicks as inspiration, then adds further nostalgic spice: a hint of Queen in the thumping Buzzkiller, an arch nod to Fashion-era Bowie on Let It Happen and Cosmic Bob – which, like Sick Holiday (a Viz-like portrait of easyJet-setters) also points to Madness – and some Buzzcocks in I Can’t Leave It Alone and the spiky Television. Add some Gang Of Four dub on I Am Done (With Trying To Be Young) – you could’ve fooled us! – and you could call this a teenage fanclub. Maybe, though, the days when one threw around juvenile titles such as Psychomental might be better left behind.
VERDICT 7/10