There are two things to know about O-FACE: 1) their sound is complex and intricate, whirring like a well-oiled machine of cogs and gears which achieves so much more than its composite parts suggest, and 2) they are committed to taking seriously the fact that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Take opening track ‘740 Turbo’ as an example, a song about true love which centres upon the gloriously American image of a luxury station wagon:

“baby you can drive my car;
it’s a luxury station wagon.
you can go wherever you want;
it’s a luxury station wagon”

The track thunders into existence and doesn’t let up until the closing bars, mixing humorous lyrics with sincere delivery and sound to produce something which wins you over instantly. ‘Yolanda’ is begins with mathy guitar before evolving into a bouncy pop song, half-sentimental, half-carefree and wholly fun to listen to. Think the rollercoaster power pop of Fang Island blended with 90s emo rock. ‘O-FACE is Breaking Up’ hits the brakes but ramps up the volume for a pretty epic slow-burner which contains the line “Now I’m dressed up like Davy Crockett trying to grin down a bear”, which is good enough reason to buy the release in itself. Closer ‘Torres’ continues the grand scale, a post-hardcore instrumental which leaves the band’s immaculate arrangements fresh in the mind of the listener long after the final chord.

Mint is out now through Father/Daughter and Miscreant Records.

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Anomie is the recording project of Field Mouse’s Rachel Browne. With the help of some friends, she has recorded a self-titled EP that was written in the space of a week during a trip to California. As described by the Father/Daughter Records bio “What emerged was a time capsule for the experience – the music functioning as a therapeutic means to alleviate the heartache Rachel felt in the moment.”

Given the condensed writing period and short turnaround, you will not be surprised to hear that the EP is urgent and vibrant, loaded with an immediacy that is very difficult to feign. Opener ‘So Long’ is a great example of this, a 90s indie pop gem that explodes out of the blocks and continues with the fluid assuredness of a champion sprinter, the lyrics both strong and confident, Browne’s metaphorical gold chain jouncing with a determined rhythm.

From here the EP decelerates. ‘Of You’ continues the 90s pop feel but has a forlorn edge, and by ‘Overnight’ the tempo crashes to form a track bathed in a melancholic moonlight. Closer ‘Funny Now’ is similarly plaintive, the guitars fuzzy and atmospheric and claustrophobic around Browne’s lyrics of isolation and remorse. Again the immediacy is clear, the wounds still open and wet and stinging like hell.

Imagine Michael Johnson had stormed down the track at Atlanta but, instead of waiting for the medal ceremony, he kept going and going, gradually reducing in speed and energy until he eventually dragged himself up his staircase and locked the door to his bedroom and spent the next few days contemplating just how raw and sad and messy all this being human stuff can be.

You can buy the EP now from the ever-excellent Father/Daughter Records.

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So opens Best Boy, the debut album of Oxford Collapse frontman Mike Pace in the new guise of Mike Pace and the Child Actors. Well, with a bit of imagination. Maybe it’s just my overblown reaction to the news that a major part of Oxford Collapse is back and making music. One of the well-respected-but-only-moderately-successful bands that saw me through the mid to late 00s, Oxford Collapse represent a good time in my life, a rose-tinted period filled with new experiences and old comforts. Aptly, Pace’s album is concerned with these very things, exploring the promises the past made and how our future selves are still looking back at them. After the initial triumphant build-up, ‘Up the Academy’ sets out this idea of uncertainty and unfulfilled dreams, “And we hope and we pray like we did yesterday that everything’s gonna be fine”, and even more global views about the lack of the utopia that was expected. “Cracks increasing, Continental Divide… Moral compass clearly not aligned”.

If all this talk of unfulfilled dreams has you expecting a dour album then think again. Listen to ‘Summer Lawns’ and tell me that it’s anything other than joyous? Even with lines like “And we drive on highways past abandoned stores stocking things we always wanted but could not afford.“ Tracks like ‘Summer Lawns’ and ‘Cold Calling’ typify the generally straight-up and sincere attitude Pace employs, an all-so-American blend of joy, hope and disillusionment. ‘The King of Corona’ is a pop song in the best sense, a catchy chorus, slight melodrama, a sprinkling of 90s cheese, but it still manages to confront expectation, disappointment, loneliness etc. in an interesting and nuanced way. Similarly, ‘Kiss & Fly’ goes for the stadium electro-rock feel, channelling Springsteen and Simon, without losing sight of the important stuff: “’Someday soon we’ll be alright,’ he said with conviction while locked out from the inside.”

Best Boy is for the children of the 80s and 90s, reminiscing about the age where entertainment exploded, where VHS tapes and cable TV transformed us into constant consumers. Of course, as consumers we were sold promises, told we merely needed x, y and z to be happy and successful and pretty and popular. It’s kind of ironic that a time built on visions of the future is now seen as a utopia locked in the past. Pace gets at this feeling by writing feel-good songs tinged with longing, nothing too sad or serious (80s/90s kids don’t take ourselves too seriously), nor a Father John Misty-style ironic assault. Instead, Best Boy is a wistful celebration of what we had and presents some convincing reasons for why we feel the way we do.

The album is being released on the 13th January. Check out the official Mike Pace and the Child Actors site for more information. Stream the album over at Stereogum and watch the video for ‘Fire Sale’ below.

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The album builds upon the band’s two previous albums (2008’s Orion Songbook and 2010’s Deadmalls and Nightfalls – both of which I would highly recommend), and confirms the ability to make sun-soaked Americana with a literary lyrical bent. Indeed the album’s lyrics are extremely dense – coming in at over 5,500 words – and paint a vivid picture of growing up in suburban Detroit during the 90s. The album artwork serves to capture the themes on display and does a better job than I could possibly hope to with words. The era evoked will certainly hold greater appeal to those of a certain generation and I’d guess that if your birthday falls between 1980 and 1990 then you will identify with a lot of the lyrics, from sun bleached VHS tapes to sports coaches to the birthday parties of friends and school mates. This is not simply a chronicle of childhood, however. A lot of the lyrics are tinged with nostalgia and a sort of wistful sadness. This is probably best illustrated by sampling a few of the lines from the album:

There’s a dead world locked in a Nintendo 64
In some divorced friend’s mom’s apartment bedroom drawer

(From Open It Up)

Or:

The shrink-wrapped cosmetics and cardboard aesthetics of department store picture frame inserts that my 
Mother keeps under a sink in a cupboard with her high school diploma and it hurts to try
To keep all our treasures intact for forever

<a href=“http://music.frontierruckus.com/track/dealerships” data-mce-href=“http://music.frontierruckus.com/track/dealerships”>Dealerships by Frontier Ruckus</a>

I would advise that this brand of folk or Americana is not for everyone. Frontier Ruckus have not attempted to jump on the bandwagon of popular contemporary folk acts and tried to make foot-stomping, sing-a-long choruses that could grace huge venues and festival headline slots. But this is not a criticism, in fact I mean it more as a complement. There is remarkable restraint and real feeling here. I found it very difficult when listening to the album to draw direct comparisons, although I think that it would be fair to cite  The Mountain Goats, particularly The Sunset Tree, with it’s evocation of coming of age and being a teenager in America. Other artists that come to mind are John K. Samson’s The Weakerthans and Will Sheff’s Okkervil River (particularly their earlier albums) and Decemberists, mainly because of the literary style lyrics, which you could almost read as poetry from the liner notes.

The band have also released a video for the closing track, Careening Catalog Immemorial, which was directed by David Meiklejohn and again captures the album’s aesthetic pretty nicely. Watch it below:

Europeans can pre-order the album from Loose Music, while North Americans can get the album in a beautiful double vinyl package, on CD, or by digital download via Quite Scientific. The band are also about to embark on a European tour, including several stops in the UK. Check out the dates below:

01 Mar – Windmill, LONDON
02 Mar – Burgerweeshuis, DEVENTER
04 Mar – Stengade, COPENHAGEN
05 Mar – Pustervik, GOTHENBERG
06 Mar – Debaser Slussen, STOCKHOLM
07 Mar – Debaser, MALMO
08 Mar – Kulturhaus 73, HAMBURG
09 Mar – Underground, COLOGNE
10 Mar – Fachwerk Gievenbeck, MUNSTER
12 Mar – Rote Fabrink, ZURICH
13 Mar – Cardinal, SCHAFFHAUSEN
14 Mar – Silencio, PARIS
16 Mar – Start The Bus, BRISTOL
17 Mar – Whelans, DUBLIN
19 Mar – Ruby Lounge, MANCHESTER
20 Mar – Bloc Bar, GLASGOW
21 Mar – Fibbers, YORK
22 Mar – Jericho Tavern, OXFORD
23 Mar – The Borderline, LONDON

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