Labels: Gringo
Review by: Alex Deller
Something funny going on with this lot, as though they’re doing everything they can to hide their light under a bushel. I mean, the band name and the album title are about as humdrum as possible, right? And that sleeve, it’s just a bit kind of there, yeah? But when it comes to the music, there’s a lot of magic at work: weird, yearning, desperate love songs that sound like the singer’s lifted his heart straight out of his chest and boshed it about with a hammer for half an hour. Things hint at the deceptively breezy soulfulness of Royal Headache, but rather than a full-weighted rock attack Reciprocate opt for loose, spry, unpredictable structures and a lightfooted sense of play. The jazzy drums and whistly, string-bent moments occasionally remind me of Braid, and the wistful, earnest romanticism isn’t too far off in terms of spirit, either. It’s a genuinely great release … immediate and at the same time odd, and full of so much heart than this cynical age might not quite know what to do with it.