Boston’s halfsour have been making superior lo-fi indie rock since their formation in 2012, releasing a solid collection of demos, EPs and a great album, Tuesday Night Live. Sticky is their much anticipated sophomore LP, an album halfsour recorded themselves over the last year (at least partly in a dilapidated New Hampshire barn), and released as a joint venture between Disposable America and Fire Talk Records. There has also been a change in line-up, drummer Travis Hagan joining Zoë Wyner (vocals, bass) and Matt Mara (guitar), in place of original member Ian Gustafson.
Sticky sees halfsour continue doing what they do best, but with new determination and focus. From the grungey opening of ‘Television Professor’ to the taut simmer and cathartic release of ‘Slug’, Sticky draws on the last 30 years of indie rock to create something that sounds quite unlike any of its influences. Lead single ‘Blurred Camera Phone’ is a good intro, the big chunky guitars and instantly infectious chorus a vehicle for Wyner to sing defiantly about rejecting other people’s expectations.
Black and white blurred camera phone
pictures of my life as meant to go
or as I’ve been told
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The album explores the unexceptional and everyday, “with moments of frustration, annoyance, and loss scattered throughout,” feelings exacerbated by their complex relationship with a rapidly gentrifying Boston. At times this is achieved with defiant shredding guitars (e.g. the swaggering ‘Cowboy’ and the stormy ‘Ditches’), and at others things are a little more reflective. ‘Paper Window’ is the closest thing Sticky has to a ballad, Wyner’s vocals uncharacteristically soft and earnest over subtle guitars and a systolic drumbeat. By the final quarter a golden and wistful guitar solo elevates things, adding a glimmering veneer to Wyner’s musings on watching someone change from a distance.
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halfsour have shown across their back catalogue that they’re capable of shape-shifting with aplomb, but the impressive thing is how their experiments are wholly successful. There isn’t a single ounce of dead-weight across Sticky, each track driven with a sense of intent that whirrs like an internal dynamo. This holds true right up until finale ‘Milk Bath’, initial wiry riffs giving way to a joyous rush of a chorus, one final example of how halfsour can make gritty rock songs with just the right amount of pop thrown in.
Sticky is out now on Disposable America and Fire Talk Records. You can also get it from the halfsour Bandcamp page.
