Trust Fund is the project of Ellis Jones, who, along with various friends, has made a name for himself over the last few years with his unique brand of lo-fi indie pop. Trust Fund’s latest album We have always lived in The Harolds was released here in the UK last month, but it’s also getting a US cassette release courtesy of our friends It Takes Time Records. The album, recorded at Jones’s home in Leeds, was initially released as something of a surprise, appearing immediately online without any of the drip-feeding that now seems to come with even the smallest labels. The move said a lot about the project, in terms of how Jones has always done things his own way, but also how far Trust Fund have come, the fact that there is a big enough fan base to allow an instantaneous self-release to been seen and heard and bought.
We have always lived in The Harolds is quieter than you may expect if you’ve checked out Trust Fund previously. The DIY recording process creating something more personal and less brashly confident than the full-band indie pop of the last release (it’s certainly closer in style to No one’s coming for us than Seems Unfair). The album opens with ‘wwsd’, which glides into being with the spooky sound of a far-off car alarm, before crunching into life with guitar and shambling drums and Jones’s signature vocal delivery. The song segues into ‘Would that be an adventure?’, with its subtly auto-tuned vocals and strange dream-like intermissions of nostalgic pop, just one of the album’s many eccentric touches. ‘melody gloucester pegasus’ is tense and taut, while ‘Together’ is as bright and sunny a pop song about wanting to die every weekday could hope to be. At least we have the weekends for “special time together”, right? As if sensing our need for a pick-me-up, the next track, ‘Crab line’, sends a beam of triumphant energy. The instrumentation initially sounds jittery and high-strung, but Jones’s vocals drive it into a catchy melody, producing a joyous pop song.
“when the winter gets cold enough
it makes you feel so thin
when the wind blows bold enough
you feel like this like you’re made of nothing
me and my baby that’s all we want
me and my baby want only this
me and my baby that’s all we want
all we want is to not exist”
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‘¬¬¬creepin’ is subdued and echoey and the Frogger-referencing ‘Like a frog’ is a soft and down-tempo indie pop song that has it’s own understated lo-fi bedroom-recorded lushness. ‘Leaving you behind’ takes a little while before blooming into catchy indie rock, before ‘whalith’ closes proceedings, a soft and directly lovesick track which sees Jones declare his love for a significant other.
“what were we searching for
a life without metaphor
i’m ready to find
you sweeping all doubts aside”
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We have always lived in The Harolds is an album that rather nicely illustrates what Trust Fund are all about. Free from the input of a label, and mostly completed by Jones alone, the album feels like a true representation of the project. It straddles the line between lo-fi and polished, weird and catchily infectious, all the while maintaining a silvery core of introspection and melancholy.
You can get the album from the Trust Fund Bandcamp page. You Americans be sure to grab a tape from It Takes Time Records.