The Puddle have been going 30 years? The Puddle were on Flying Nun Records between 1986 and 1993? They play spiky, ramshakle (post)punk? Why on earth have I not heard of them?
I came to this album with precisely no expectations, although more often than not, my disposition leads me to generally expect very little other than disappointment.
Magnificently wonky, awkward and off-kilter guitars and equally ill-at-ease vocals slope through a set of New Wave indie tunes that are gloriously idiosyncratic. The sound is not exactly lo-fi, but decidedly rough around the edged and all the better for it. Highlight tracks, notably the quirky, sprawling nine-minuter 'Valhalla' and clanking 'Purple Horse', locate the band in the same bracket as the likes of Pavement and The Fall, but across 'Playboys', The Puddle incorporate a range of styles, while also emerging sounding uniquely like themselves every time.
'What I Believe In' sounds like a drunken Michael Stipe providing vocals on a demo for The Psychedelic Furs circa 1980, while its no-budget sloppiness reminds me of the first Toiling Midgets album minus the psychotic edge. It's the raucous sax used in the context of a guitar-driven New Wave number that really hits the spot. Yet, because it's still rare to hear such instrumentation, it still sounds fresh. Moreover, it's so good it makes the album worthwhile all on its own. 'Rainbows Bridge Airlines' has a real urgency, not to mention a rapidfire rockabilly sound not a million miles away from that of The Dead Kennedys.
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Weedier tracks, like 'Sleepy People (Remember Dreams)' are redeemed by the idiosyncratic, slacker performance which imbues them with a breezy, laid-back feel that's strangely uplifting. It doesn't always work, though: the warped New Wave reggae and off-key singing on 'Christmas in the Country' is just all too jarring and sloppy, and 'Monogamy' is jangly and lacklustre. As a whole, 'Playboys in the Bush' is a rather uneven affair, but taking the rough with the smooth, the better tracks outweigh the weaker ones sufficiently to make it worthwhile.
The Puddle on MySpace
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