THEY LOOK as if they should be the definitive Twee-Indie band, but looks are deceiving. There is grit and heft in the songs of this Dutch quartet.
The follow-up to 2019 debut Boat sees the Amsterdammers explore themes of doubt, uncertainty, anxiety, lack of confidence, an acceptance of personal faults, and a recognition that the need for change is necessary, but not easy, and will take time - a situation captured in the poignant ‘Faces’ and the ironic ‘I Love The City’.
Throughout, the melancholy is shot through with a muscularity rarely heard in this kind of indie. ‘You Don’t Want This’ opens the album with a burst of guitar riff energy that builds throughout, while the coda takes a sudden change of pace and feel which has the ring of inspiration about it.
The stomping riff and terrace chant chorus of ‘I Know I’m Not Easy To Like’ is closer to punk than to indie. Likewise ‘Keep It Together’’s quiet/loud dynamic (which Pip Blom do well throughout the album ), shows a band as comfortable with those huge, exciting, rock and punk-like choruses, as they are with Indie’s core values of melody and melancholy - values which find their finest expression in the sweetly sad ‘Different Tune’.
A strong album from the Dutch foursome, with a feeling that the best is yet to come.
