Twerps
Range Anxiety
February 2 2015 (Merge Records)
7.5/10
Words: Richard O’Hagan
The Eighties are back. In fact, they’re not just back, they’re back! Back! BACK!
Fortunately, though, this isn’t the Eighties of terrible fashions, big hair and stupid catchphrases in Smash Hits. This is the Eighties of quality independent labels, C86 and three broadsheet music papers a week. Merge Records are, of course, one of the last surviving indies of that era, so perhaps it is no surprising that the production in this, Aussie band Twerps’ second studio album, is so evocative of that era. Guitars jangle like it is 1986, Julia McFarlane’s voice trills through numbers like ‘Shoulder’ in a way that The Shop Assistants would be proud of, whilst Martin Frawley’s occasionally off-key and slightly nasal tones bring back some of the very best of Creation’s legendary ‘Doing it for the Kids’ era. ‘Cheap Education’, for example, is a song that Paddy McAloon would be proud of.
Fortunately, Twerps are less daft than their name suggests and throw more into the mix than just a straight attempt to copy The Pastels or The Go-Betweens. Opener ‘House Keys’ is a synth-led instrumental, whilst final number ‘Empty Road’ is so stripped down it is practically naked, just Frawley’s voice and some gentle instrumentation. Elsewhere, the dual lead singer approach is best shown on ‘Adrenaline’, as the two answer one another like territorial owls in springtime.
Lyrically, Frawley is as inventive as they come, showcasing numbers about suggested bank robberies (‘I Don’t Mind’), stalking and even taking that old staple, the hangover, and turning it into a metaphor for a relationship (‘Back to You’).
It has been almost four years since the release of Twerps’ debut album. Fingers crossed that they don’t make us all wait as long again.
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