“It Must Be Grubs is meant to be fun and colourful and playful and enjoyable even though some of the lyrics and songs are a bit sad. We are very happy with it.”

And happy they should be, the album is an eighteen minute rush of jolly good fun. The band meld good things from all of the member’s other projects creating an infectious, if rather messy, brand of indie pop. Opener ‘What Cost’ sees Brennan take the lead and sounds very much like a lo-fi pop version of Two White Cranes, but with added shouty screechy vocals and group wooooahhs. Yes it’s as good as it sounds. ‘Nuffin’ is actually a pretty tight lo-fi pop song, with a beguiling sense of offhand good-times, while Brennan and Williams provide deadpan vocal harmonies on ‘Dec 15th’. The track’s lively drums give things an infectious energy, culminating in shout-along ending. It’s so fun and energetic you can’t help but imagine the band at the end all flushed and blushed, slightly sweaty and embarrassed like toddlers coming down from a Smartie-induced mania. ‘Work in Progress’ is about battling innate self-deprecation and trying to ignore those seemingly perfect people and, ultimately, taking tentative steps into self-care. Brennan repeats the chorus with increasing fervour, creating a strangely defiant and positive song about looking after yourself:

“I focus on myself
swimming everyday
so good for my health”

‘There’s Something About Grubs’ has male and female vocals seemingly singing two different songs, while ‘Garnish’ is about just that, that green thing in the side of your plate that you don’t want to eat, as well as more serious things that crop up on the side of things, from mystery scratches to thoughts inside your head (“On the side of my head there’s a memory / I don’t know what from / we can talk it through endlessly”). ‘Gym Shame’ is another short burst of lo-fi rock which pairs squally guitars and pounded drums with sweet, innocent vocals, and ‘Windwaker’ is an endearingly twee track about playing the Gamecube (“Tuesday I get upset, playing Windwaker / I fall and fall again, I keep hitting the water”). It’s not an explicitly sad song but its chirpy happiness seems to exist in spite of something, something which suggests that making these little pop songs isn’t just a joke between friends.

‘Skinner’ weaves increasingly agitated male and female vocals, which proceed to merge for the chorus, and ‘Tendons’ is another song about self-improvement and the pains of exercise (“if I run five miles today all joints ache”). ‘Good Timez’ signs off with one final rush of catchy lo-fi pop, complete with a brilliant shout-a-long chorus of “I WILL FOLLOW YOU!” If it sounds like three friends messing around and having fun then that’s because it is! But what else do you want from your lo-fi rock & roll?

You can get It Must Be Grubs as a digital download via the Grubs bandcamp page. Or if you’d like something a little more substantial then why not order the album on vinyl, also on Bandcamp, through Reeks of Effort and Tuff Enuff Records.

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On Reticular McArdle’s vocals are noticeably more delicate and fragile than we’re used to. Well, except for when they’re not. Sometimes they’re barely more than a whisper and others they’re delivered with considerable force. It isn’t as raucous as her usual work, but it’s suffused with a different sort of energy, hushed and restrained but also an exercise in fierce personal expression. This is a great example of what has come to be known as “bedroom pop”, the antithesis of the over-produced, smart-ass music that has become so prevalent, even in the so-called indie scene.

The EP opens with ‘You’re a Disease’, a lonely-sounding acoustic track that seems to explore the end of something. The chorus of “It’s in your blood, so it’s okay if you hate it, but passing it on isn’t my fault, so don’t hate me” ends with a sucker punch of a final line, “Are you scared? Don’t be”. Somehow those five words capture a sense of forgiveness and kindness that elevates the song far beyond the usual break-up fare.

What follows is four more tracks in this vein, including a great cover of Perfume Genius’s ‘Take Me Home’, a track which suits McArdle’s style perfectly. But my current favourite is the final track, ‘Snow’, which for all the melancholy is actually a beam-of-light love song. McArdle sings:

“I’m moving soon and things will get better
while you’re clearing out your room, lamenting the weather.
And it’s been seven years, when you thought you lost me
I’ll stay right here, whatever it costs me
My love for you is endless, make sure to remind me
how I can get through the night”

What I’m getting it is that this is the sound of somebody who’s trying. There is a very real danger when people full of feelings pick up guitars in quiet bedrooms that they make something cynical and (quietly) destructive. But this isn’t like that. If you’ve read Wake the Deaf at all in the past you’ll have probably figured out that most of our favourite music can be applied like a salve. We like sad songs for not completely sad people, songs shot through with hope, something for every single one of us to hold on to. And that’s why I like this little EP so much. How could you not love a record that ends with the words “It’s alright?”

You can get Reticular on a pay-what-you-want basis over at the Alana McArdle Bandcamp page.

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“Most of the songs have something to do with the fear of being trapped in a feeble body, dreams of a muscular form and the relationship between one’s environment, one’s body and one’s being an idiot. I don’t work out a lot, but I think about it often.”

If that sounds weird or in any way preachy, rest assured Working Out is only one of those things. The first single sees a nice dose of humour to back things up. “I think it sounds like a little dog or other animal trying to express malfunctions.” Levy told me in an email. “It also kinda sounds a little bit like scout niblett and saetia, but not really.” 

The first single ‘Dead Lamb’ is available now and seems to be pretty close to the comparisons above. Although, rather than a small dog, I’d compare his vocals to halfway between Daniel Johston and Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

Levy did send me some tour dates with Playlounge which I fully intended to share with you. Unfortunately, due to us being horrible, inefficient people, the tour ended earlier this week.

Working Out will be released on Art is Hard and Reeks of Effort on the 17th November. You can pre-order it here.

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The song, ‘Post Holiday Dead Song’ is a scuzzy lo-fi pop song that sounds like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart meets Johnny Foreigner. It will be accompanied by Joanna Gruesome’s ‘Anti-Parent Cowboy Killers,’ a track taken from last year’s album Weird Sister, on a 7″ that has some of the best artwork I’ve seen in a long while.

You can pre-order the split from Odd Box Records here. Also, be sure to check out their previous EP, Pure // Apart, on Bandcamp.

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