Whenever I read the word ‘mature’ in a review in reference to a band’s songwriting, I invariably interpret it as ‘boring’. Not so where the new EP from Post War Glamour Girls, which continues the trajectory of their two previous singles while revealing new facets of their songwriting abilities. These compositions are mature in that they’re well-considered and lyrically dextrous, but with the ragged edges and quirky idiosyncrasies that are already cemented as the band’s trademarks still firmly intact, they’re anything but dull.
Kicking off, the opening of ‘The Trawlerman’s Code’ finds the band in a lightly funky place hitherto unexplored on their previous releases, before barrelling off on an entirely different direction before finally crashing on a rocky outcrop on a turbulent high tide.
‘Today I Am A Man’ sees them back on more familiar terrain as they lunge and lurch, wired and tetchy, wide-eyed and agitated, through a spiky stomp across surreal meadows where the grass is barbed wire, with James coming on like a young Nick Cave as he howls in a deranged fashion the lines ‘Today I’m a man / Today I’m a unicorn’ and ‘don’t wash that fucking sock puppet’. It’s a noisy, snarling bass-driven beast that bucks and lurches wildly, and is probably one of the best songs The Birthday party never wrote.
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The contrasting vocals of James and Alice (gruff and sweet respectively) duel it out over an off-kilter waltz on ‘Tremor’ before ‘She Will Always Be My Anchor’ stamps all over the delicately poised mood, with James at his brawling best, a swaggering, staggering full-throated Tom Waits holler.
Having demonstrated that ‘Spitting Pearls’ and ‘Suburban Barbarian’ were anything but one-off moments of brilliance, Post War Glamour Girls look set to really establish their reputation for inventive, intelligent and noisy alternative rock with attitude.
Post War Glamour Girls Online
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