Artist: Current Affairs
Title: Off The Tongue
Genre: Post Punk / Alt Rock
Release Date: 14th July 2023
Label: Tough Love Records
Album Review
CURRENT AFFAIRS are an interesting band. The current line-up came together in 2020 but the they’ve been around for a few years before that. They played around the UK within a close DIY music network and the current line-up came together through what is called the Spitehouse Collective, a project designed to promote female fronted / Queer music. The band is from Glasgow but now Glasgow- and Berlin-based. Early events were held in Glasgow at Transmission Gallery and Glasgow Autonomous Space. In 2019 they released a singles collection called ‘Object & Subject’. The wait for their debut album was a long one but here it is and I will now impart to you my first impressions.
An interesting mix of sounds we have here that grabbed inspirations from the 1980s Alt Rock / Roth play book and given a new slant or twist. They sound like SIOUXIE & THE BANSHEES AND JOY DIVISION cross pollinated with The B 52S, XMAL DEUTCHLAND and ALTERED IMAGES. Joan Sweeney’s voice fluidly gliding between the styles of Siouxie, Anja Huwe, Kate Pierson and Claire Grogan seamlessly but still sounding fresh. The album as a whole is Jingly Jangly with a dark edge. Think glass shards glued to a dildo.
The vocal is also melodic but slightly dissonant. I’m waiting for a note to follow the line of the instruments but it doesn’t come, it carries on. But not in a displeasing way. ‘No Fuss’ just sounds Scottish. I would have said CURRENT AFFAIRS are Scottish before knowing they are Scottish. Scattergun warbling and light bending shredding create the feel before ‘Reactor’ switches between foot tapping Psychedelic B 52S Pop and a more exotic BANSHEES sounds helped along by the bass. ‘Right Time’ and ‘Riled’ with their COCTEAU TWINS vibes. The former reminding me of ‘Pearly Dew Drops Drops’, the latter ‘Wax and Wane’ and ‘Get Wrecked’ which almost sounds like KILLING JOKE’s ‘Fire Dances’. ‘Regardless’ feels wide-eyed and manic whilst ‘Cahoots’ is bright, warbling and tribal. I like ‘Casual Radicals’ as well! Its vocally and I assume facially expressive. I can imagine a wide eyed and throaty cavernousness complimented by a lot of nasolabial fold!
Penultimate track ‘Big Limit’ has a dose of the STRAWBERRY SWITCHBLADES about it with smatterings of the MARCH VIOLETS thrown in. Again the vocal is cavernous and big ably accompanied by simple bass and 6-stringed filigrees. ‘Her Own Private Multiverse’ finishes the proceedings. Early SIOUXIE? ‘Spellbound’? ‘Kiss In The Dreamhouse’? Everything about this is pleasant. It has an easy sway to it like bull rushes swaying in a breeze. The guitar feeling like the evening sun rippling its reflection on the surface waters of a canal, the bass shadows by the bank. The guitar changes now, the sun sets behind the trees… This is a good album, I like it. It’s easy to listen to. It’s a good accompaniment to most things whether its eating toast, throwing the garbage out or going for a reverie filled walk! There’s plenty of melodic flailing and wild abandonment. It’s up, its down. There’s also a lot of references to music I listened to in my “Yoot” to add to the “Oh yeah that sounds like!!” count.
Tracklist
01. No Fuss
02. Reactor
03. Right Time
04. Riled
05. Get Wrecked
06. Regardless
07. Cahoots
08. Casual Radicals
09. Big Limit
10. Her Own Private Multiverse
Line-up
Joan Sweeney – Vocals
Sebastian Ymai – Guitar
Gemma Fleet – Bass
Andrew Milk – Drums
Website
https://www.facebook.com/currentaffa1rs/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7.5
Sound: 7.5
Total: 7.5 / 10
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