If music can sound retro and thoroughly modern at the same time, does that make it timeless? Or perhaps it just makes it quite clever and very satisfying. This eponymous album is Eugene McGuinness’ first full length release, and it can be generally split into two types of song, all of which turns old music on its’ head, and litters them with lyrics about text, tabloids and fruit machines – like going back in time, but taking all mod cons with you.
The first are the chaotic, frantic numbers, which leap from section to section whilst retaining an overall pop structure. Current single ‘Fonz’ is an album highlight, fusing elements of nursery rhyme with a chorus that almost touches on ragga. It’s a lively number that grabs the attention with a fairly aggressive sound and some impressive vocal gymnastics. It’s not a song you need to dissect, for it’s the sum of its’ parts that makes it so formidable. Similarly, ‘Nightshift’ is built up around an enthusiastic riff that could probably slay a barn dance, but sounds like Fleet Foxes dropping some of the pretence and having a bit of fucking fun. This is a song you’re expected to dance like a goon to.
‘Moscow State Circus’ is Simon & Garfunkel going off the rails. Is this indie-pop? I don’t know any more, but it’s certainly a pleasant subversion on the cheery guitar pop from yesteryear that’s a little too saccharine to enjoy. A lesson in how these things really should be done. Many of these songs are stories – they’re not trying to tell you about your life, they just want to share an anecdote or two.
Then there are the slower moments, the more simplistic songs where things go more acoustic and charming. These are the songs where everything goes a little grainy and black and white, like on ‘Wendy Wonders,’ which sounds like the Eugene you can take home to meet your mother, even if he is singing about being a ‘fucked up bastard, sub zero.’ It all sounds pleasant, but when you listen, the tale being crooned is much less homely. It’s a guilty pleasure kind of feeling.
‘Those Old Black and White Movies Were True’ is a very sweet song, an update of The Carpenters take on pop music, very stripped down and not of our time at all. The retrospective lyrics, though, ensure that you know that is meant to be now. It’s an interesting contrast. Take ‘Knock Down Ginger’ a whimsical pop lament that could be from any time, sounding like a lullaby and a cry for help all in one. ‘Atlas’ is another example of how classic pop music is employed on the album, laden with strings and a euphoric sounding chorus – it’s like asking a lady to dance, and then pinching her arse on the way to the dancefloor.
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‘Not So Academic’ is a lesson the The Last Shadow Puppets in how to emulate old music and make something new. It could be straight from My Fair Lady in a sense, just without the theatrics.
Like Lightspeed Champion before him, McGuinness manages to be self-effacing without sounding pitiful, and sidelines the threat of tweeness with some well placed swear words (always nice to hear the words ‘flying fuck’ appear in a song) and razor sharp lyrics. Moments like the lyrics on ‘Nightshift’ “You could spend your whole wrapped around her finger / Some say that’s fucking rich coming from me,” are open and sound like prose over poetry, but work because there’s no-one else really saying these kinds of things in such an enjoyable way. There is a wit running through the album that’s subtle enough not to take the appeal away from the songs upon several listens.
So as a debut, it has variety, it’s often fun, always articulate and occasionally melancholy, and it takes classic pop and subverts in a way that I’ve not really encountered before. It’s well produced and memorable, and suggests even greater things to come. It does everything it needs to and more, to the point of being almost essential. It’s cynicism with a welcoming smile from start to finish, and that’s just what I’m in the mood for right now. Awesome.
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