The Wombats Present; A superbly fun debut. (The Wombats Proudly Present... A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation - Wombats)

Member Name: Salmon91

Product:	The Wombats Proudly Present... A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation - Wombats
Date:	31/05/09 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Addictive pop songs, witty lyrics, rough around the edges (in a very good way)

Disadvantages: The emotion that comes from Matt Murphy is sometimes lost in the upbeat and fun pop music

It's rare that you come across an album that kicks off with an acapella, reminiscent of 50's barbershop music. It's even rarer that this tune will sound fresh and fun, forget "New Rave" and whatever it is that is happening now, "New Barbershop" anyone?

This quirky opener really sums up the rest of the album, "tales of girls, and boys, and marsupials!" the Liverpool lads squeal in happy harmony, and they have let us in on the lyrical topics we can expect. Well, aside from the marsupials part, although, they are "The Wombats". Teenage anecdotes of failed romance, unrequited love and a sprinkling of silliness on top.

The bouncy, indie guitar songs this three piece deliver are all as catchy as lead single "Let's Dance To Joy Division", after a good listen to the album you'll find yourself humming the tunes and sprouting the words. This of course is a testament to the superb song writing of this album.

Singer Matt's voice quivers and cracks throughout this album with seemingly genuine emotion (despite the witty lines he comes out with), sounding at times on the verge of breaking down any minute. The music itself, pop punky in nature with distorted guitars rattling around, cannot really be placed into one genre, there are the indie moments but equally there are the beatlesy catchy chirpy tunes moments, doused in harmonised backing vocals.

You shouldn't expect any five minute epics from this album. Amongst the Radioheads, Editors and Interpols who take themselves so seriously it's actually quite refreshing to find a band prepared to have a bit of fun at their own expense and dish out 3 minute chunks of pop goodness. The closest you'll get to something really serious on this album is the self proclaimed "dark" song, "Here Comes The Anxiety" where lead singer Murph tries to distinguish this track from, the fun and games from the offset with lyrics such as "No hint of a smile, or the usual quirky anecdote" But despite all this these lyrics perch upon quite an upbeat and addictive backing, peppered with the bands trademark "ooh"s and "aah"s.

Stand out tracks on this album would be the well picked singles "Kill The Director" and "Let's Dance To Joy Division" and also the equally fun and easy to get stuck in your head "School Uniforms" and the longest track on the album "Little Miss Pipedream" with more "ooh"s than you can shake a rhythm stick at, toy keyboards and superb melody and lyrics this song would be my personal favourite.

Overall this album is not big, and its not particularly clever either, but boy is it fun to listen to.

Summary: Really nice pop album, refreshingly fun.