Labels: Evil Weevil
Review by: Sean Haughton
It’s fair to say that at this point I greet any band peddling a style described as “surfy” or “retro pop” with a healthy dose of cynicism but my heart can’t deny this one. Most recent bands of this type just don’t have the songs to back up the aesthetic, but The Eeries have that stuff down and they’re taking it straight to the Ed Sullivan show. You can tell the love is there and the research has been done and they haven’t just settled on the first Beat Coast album they could download.
Most of the record rides a wave of super-simplistic, pretension-free bubblegum pop along the line of bands like Shannon And The Clams or a less-fuzzy So Cow, and the harmonies are pulled straight from Lennon/McCartney circa 1963. Being indoctrinated into a love of The Beatles from the early age has cursed me with an inability to resist something this catchy. Dare I say this actually really reminds me of The Clean a fair bit too? Sonically the record is pretty bare bones, with a real minimal production that’s low on reverb and doesn’t attempt to fake a “past sound”. The guitars have this nice balance of clean-yet-scrappy throughout and the songs stay short and sweet at around 2 minutes the whole way through, bar a couple of ballads towards the end that nail the waltzing Brian Wilson thing and break up the album nicely.
If you’re looking for a really good quick-fix pop record this is something worth your time. A really enjoyable record that I can imagine on a sunny day sounds absolutely bang on. Burger Records just re-released it on tape so you can probably pick it up for about £3 with something else.