Highlights: Willow Café, New Year, Luckless Days
First, we have to bring
up the question of The Plimptons, a brilliant and overlooked Glaswegian band
that called it quits earlier this year. The Plimptons may have lacked identity,
but it’s not like it mattered when their albums had so much melodic bliss going
for them; their genre-hopping was hilarious and exciting (imagine early Dickies
that were open to anything), but
might have also been symbolic of the fact that they never really managed to
settle down and take it all seriously. The Plimptons’ farewell EP (also
independently released this year) is well worth hearing. Here’s the review, and
here’s the actual thing.
Well, anyway. GUMS! are an
offshoot of the now deceased Plimptons, and Antipathy
is their second EP. Thankfully, whereas the first one (A Glaswegian Summer, 2012) sounded bleak and, in all honestly, not
particularly inspired, Antipathy is
the sort of ecstatic but obscure pop record you want to tell your friends
about.
While basically preserving
the diversity of the original band, GUMS! are doing it in a less erratic manner.
The insane catchiness is there, of course, and the pop punk of “Dancing In Your
Room” is The Plimptons all over (however, with an ounce of female vocals), but
overall this is a somewhat sweeter (I swear there are hints of twee pop in a
couple of songs), more charming and less fucked-up (I’m using the word
affectionately) affair. Particularly good are the first three tracks, instantly
memorable pop confections which offer that lush tunefulness Scottish bands can
do so well. “New Year” is an instant hit in the pop charts of my world.
I would urge any music fan to
get Antipathy (can be done here, and
for free, too), I swear that sonically it makes more sense than most of what is
released these days. As long as it’s a strong, articulate melody you care for
and not some masturbatory ambience that goes on for 20 minutes.
8/10
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