There’s not a day goes by that I don’t shed a tear for the death of quirk rock merchants McLusky. Though there were three of them, they made noise enough to re-deafen a deaf person, with cleverly thought-out tunes that didn’t compromise on melody despite the cacophony.
Since that fateful day in January 05, few bands have reached that high standard in the field of mad metal. The hurdle that causes most bands to fall is that they don’t realise there’s no art in breaking rules without knowing the full set in detail.
So, it’s a most welcome surprise to hear Help She Can’t Swim’s second album open with a stripped-down, meticulous harmony that comes from the school of The Posies, before the band whip off their cover and reveal themselves to be the noisy bastards that they are. Yet before ‘Pass The Hat Around’ winds up, the Southampton foursome return to their original choirboy pose, just to push the point a little further. Brilliant.
Deeper into the album, tracks like ‘All The Stars’ do their best to out-crazy Atari Teenage Riot, but with the audience knowing that there’s oodles of sanity bubbling underneath. Indeed, lead track ‘Hospital Drama’ is an intelligently pitched hybrid of indie disco frenzy and their usual unpredictability (eg the disco-unfriendly quiet interludes). Still, try arguing with a million-mile-an-hour song that starts: “We went to the party spelt P-I-T-Y”
nine/ten