Mexican Pets: “Nobody’s Working Title” (Independent)

The phrase ‘Perfect Pop’ is much abused but as part of that glorious tradition that stretches from the Buzzcocks and Vic Goddard through to Teenage Fanclub and The Breeders, Mexican Pets’ Nobody’s Working Title fully deserves all the accolades that come with that term, defining the kind of scratchy guitar and sweetly soulful vocals that can tear at your heart strings and set your mind racing.

The two opening numbers ‘Stigmata Errata’ and ‘Subside’ are two of the most beautiful tunes ever crafted by any band, let alone an Irish one. I find myself listening in raptures and wondering where Mexican Pets have been all my life. Pat Clafferty is an amazing vocalist, always restrained yet always inside the song and teasing out depths of resonance. When he swings into the chorus on ‘Subside’ and mellifluously intones “We’re anchored in ice just formed as we subside, and rancour rises up alright,” the affect is almost heartbreaking, and certainly breathtaking.

Throughout Nobody’s Working Title the guitar playing is magnificently jerky, and jagged too. It stops and starts and jumps up and down and is full of implication and suggestion. It hits all the right spots: sharp and sensitive without being in any way maudlin or sloppy. It’s anti-guitar at times, an aesthetic of deconstruction that runs against the grain and is essentially modern.

‘Magnet Force’ is full of overt social comment but even that is handled in an unclichéd and inventive manner as it proclaims resistance to the usual material and institutional attractions. It changes the tone a little as well and the rest of this ‘mini-album’ (thirty minutes long) delves into darker zones. Along with the aforementioned track the closing number, a kind of minor epic called ‘Merry Hell’, also finds Mexican Pets looking outward. Ostensibly, it seems to be about the stupidity of joining the army and going to war but it could be about many things. No easy judgements and facile condemnations are offered to comfort the listener, though.

Ironically, ‘How to Have More Fun’ is the bleakest melody on Nobody’s Working Title. Paradoxically, it’s also hugely uplifting. Indeed, if you’re wondering how you can get more kicks this year, then just listen to Nobody’s Working Title.

Of course, it’s more than just fun. But that’s what makes it so good.

• Patrick Brennan.