Half solid indie and half fuzzy electro weirdness, Here Come The Runts is an album that hasn’t quite decided what it wants to be. With that said, listening as it veers drunkenly from one genre to another, tipsily knocking over established convention and blithely subverting expectations, it’s impossible to deny that the journey’s a fun one.

The title track is a blend of ominous, otherworldly vocals, backed by a driving rhythm straight out of a hardcore album. After an anxiety-inducing, slow burn speed up, the first half of the record dissolves into a series of impossibly slick pop songs – the soundtrack to a club that you’ve never even heard of.

By contrast, fourth track ‘Handyman’ is complete 8Tracks fodder, starting flowery and delicate before building to a chorus straight out of a 2014 teen movie. ‘Seven Sticks Of Dynamite’ is sultry folk rock at it’s best, and is followed by a 30-second love song, on an album that ends with a six-minute ballad-come-punk track that switches genres so effortlessly you don’t even notice.

Intrigued? Well, rest assured, I haven’t even told you the craziest parts.

Here Come The Runts is released February 2nd, 2018.

 

Rhiannon Skye-Boden