The Loungs - We Are The Champ

“Remember the voices you hear are only there to remind you of the time you forgot your medication” sing The Loungs on brass-filled track ‘Dig That Do’ from this, their debut album ‘We Are The Champ’. On listening to the record it seems quite likely that it is in fact the Loungs that haven’t been taking their schizophrenia medication as it is veritable melange of styles, influences and personalities.

The album begins with a wave of fizzy, joyful pop music. Opening track ‘Clancy’s Stomp’ is actually just that: a good old-fashioned stomp-a-long that could easily be lifted from a Super Furry Animals album. However, while also both fizzy and joyful, ‘Electric Lights’ highlights just how schizophrenic this band is. Kicking off like a proper rocker, it develops into a harmony and Hammond drenched slice of West Coast pop. Not content with just two personalities it turns once more, this time into a low key lament, before heading back skywards, declaring that it’s going to be a “magic night”. This case of multiple personalities is a theme that recurs throughout a remarkably restless album.

Elsewhere, ‘Get Along’ appears to be a ballad for the most part, making use of the dulcet tones of a trumpet to create mood, but as soon as you think you’ve got it pegged, the very same trumpet joins in on a Madness-style knees up that has you itching to stretch out your braces. The slightly irritatingly titled ‘Googly Moogly’ sounds like a Housemartins song (when’s the last time you heard a band you could say that about?) with its a capella intro, and is another that plays around with song structure, flitting between abrasive, growling vocals and more luscious harmonies.

Single ‘Armageddon Outta Here’, despite its equally irritating title, completes the upbeat opening to the album and is an excellent, if rather a contrary piece of bubblegum pop. The lead couplet states: “Let the planes fall from the sky, For I won’t miss you when you die”, something entirely at odds with the infectious, sugary harmonies. ‘Smile Reptile’ and ‘Throughout It All’, along with the later ‘Beatles-at-the-fairground’ of ‘All Your Love’ prove that The Loungs have a darker soul, though this is generally well-hidden behind moments such as the minute and a half of Beach Boys inspired pop that is ‘Seen My Baby Dancing’.

In fact it is only here in the final stages of the album that The Loungs actually manage to stick to one formula for a whole song – not least the gentle, ethereal closer ‘In Winter Coats’ – something that actually comes as a bit of a relief.

You can’t help feeling that ‘We Are The Champ’ is just like a kid with a short attention span. Despite the fact that only one of the 12 songs stretches past the 4 minute mark, many dart, minute to minute, from one quirk to the next. The music is, though, brimming with enthusiasm and throughout the album retains a coherent premise: fun. Perhaps understandably, since St Helens lies geographically between the two, The Loungs seem to have a mix of both the chipper eccentricities of Scouse bands like the Coral and the Zutons, and the self-assured humour of a long line of Manchester bands, a combination that certainly makes for an entertaining listen.

Maybe it’s because I’m too miserable for the cheerful pop, maybe it’s the cockiness of the thing, maybe it’s the fact the lyrics grate on me too often, maybe it’s that I still have no idea how to pronounce the band’s name, or, more likely, maybe it’s that I wish they’d just settle on one or two sounds per song instead of the average four or five, but there’s definitely something about ‘We Are The Champ’ that doesn’t quite fit for me. Nonetheless, it is an eclectic, melodic and enjoyable album of pop music that will take a good while to get bored of.

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First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.

Islands Lost At Sea vs Softpriest - The Way We Played It Yesterday / Study Bunk Breakout

Manchester label Akoustik Anarkhy is very quickly making a bit of a name for itself. Sired from the stable that brought you The Longcut and Nine Black Alps, recent releases from bands like Autokat and The Loungs have indicated a knack for finding interesting music originating from the North West. With this more leftfield split 7” release, they do nothing to diminish their reputation.

‘The Way We Played It Yesterday’, Islands Lost At Sea’s debut offering, kicks off with an infectious bass line that immediately gets inside you. This hook and the 4/4 beat propel the song, while a variety of instruments and samples that sound like everything from the kazoo to modem noises to backing vocals by the Chipmunks launch an intricate assault on the ears. Things break down for something of an eye to the storm with mysterious vocals that sound a lot like local boy Guy Garvey, and then you’re off again on a magical carpet ride through Islands Lost At Sea’s strange world. Like a cartoon pop song might sound to the deranged, it begs repeated listens.

Softpriest (AKA Charlie Bayley) seems to inhabit an even stranger sister world to Islands Lost At Sea. A kind of future gypsy folk instrumental, ‘Study Bunk Breakout’ is another song that sounds like it has been filtered through the mind of the insane. For the most part it appears to be a succession of TV theme tunes played backwards (there’s definitely some Rainbow in there) and has moments of brilliant discordance. Arrhythmic and very odd, ‘Study Bunk Breakout’ can at times be a little disorientating and is about as far from ‘chill-out’ as electronica can be, but it is utterly innovative and is absorbing and entertaining throughout.

All in all then, another very promising AA side from the aA label.

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First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.