Photo: andrewellisportfolio.tumblr.com

What a state the world is in. It’s 2015, and new guitar music still arrives burdened with thick swirls of philosophical innuendo over its very existence.

But maybe we’re making progress. The debate has abated a bit, perhaps because all the hand-wringers are distracted by bright young things in identical n*ormc*re garb nodding and making clicky noises come out of their MacBooks.

Is asking if guitar music is dead dead? Is the concept of “guitar music” even a thing any more? Are we post-genre? In a world where the playlist is king, does it matter if your niche post-2-step banger shlubs up next to some polyrhythmic guitar noodling?

Maybe that’s an unnecessary introduction for Cavalry, a Liverpool band that are making “guitar music”, but really should be simply credited as making “music”.

Cavalry are the first guitar band to really catch my ear for a long time, and while that could just as easily be my fault, there is a suggestion of something silvery and transcendent in their supple songs.

An Understanding has heart, soul and meaning: all those words that mean so much and get devalued when they’re attached to pious, serious and “authentic” guitar music.

But Cavalry’s songs seem to have them woven into their being. Maybe it’s the warm weather we’re having right now, but you know — these songs sound just right.