Wait.
I was just about to write, “Total Babes’ Like They Always Do is unashamedly joyful, arrow-straight buzzsaw pop,” which, when you re-read it – usual music journo descriptive cobblers aside – raises one glaring question.
Why ‘unashamedly’?
What’s the perceived shame in writing, recording and performing songs that don’t feature trite use of ironic keyboards, or non-ironic sax lines, or 1500 layers of FX to make the song uncharmingly obtuse? And where, oh where, is the Witch House remix?
Too much exposure to too many bands trying too hard, that’s what’s done the damage.
And that meant that, when presented with Total Babes‘ spazzy, lo-fi, free-for-all, pre-ironic sound, my brain flashed up the mental equivalent of the Blue Screen Of Death, unable to compute parameters that don’t exist.
So clutch Like They Always Do close to your bosom, as it’s both a deliriously fun relic of the naive past, and an indicator of the blissfully unindulgent future.
It’s a song – and they’re a band – free of bullshit, and full of simple enjoyment. That doesn’t mean they’re Ocean Colour Scene faux-authentic. It means they’re normal people with an extraordinary aim. Great.
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