Bleachers

In an overtired yet unable to sleep half-slumber I listened to the most recent NPR: All Songs Considered last night, which had SOAK as a guest DJ. Refreshing as it was to hear a artist of a similar age talking about the same musical influences I had growing up, they had a discussion about picking albums based purely on their album artwork. There's something special about the surprise that follows when the decision to purchase is based purely on visuals and not what you've heard.

All this in mind, I found myself scrolling through iTunes 'new music' section. Not quite walking about HMV on a Saturday morning with my emo pals and a well-earned tenner wondering what to pick, but the sentiment was still there. At the bottom corner of the singles section was a little picture of the back of a person, with short bleached and pink hair. Major hair envy and nostalgia for that time I decided to go pink kicked in and I decided it was probably worth a listen. The song was 'I Wanna Get Better' by Bleachers. Before the song had even finished I had their album 'Strange Desires' downloaded and ready to play on repeat.

(I wasn't kidding, this is me spring of '14)

The sound is fun. It has the energy of the punk-pop bands I stalked as a 14 year old, the 80s vibe I loved as an 17 year old and the voice and tone of all the music I enjoy now. Perfect. Parts of the album feel a little cheesy, but it's easy to forgive because it's just so damn enjoyable.

It all became clear when I realised the singer was Jack Antonoff, bae of Lena Dunham and pal and producer to Taylor Swift's 1989 album; the album we've all been dancing to repeatedly for the past few months, right? They catchy, synthy pop vibe is all over the Bleacher's debut and will have you dancing all the same, without the guilt of being a twenty-something thoroughly enjoying America's new pop princess (not that I've ever felt guilty about loving Tay-tay.)

There's rarely a song on the album that doesn't have an sickeningly catchy I-need-to-sing-along hook in the chorus and I think that's the charm. 'Roller coaster' makes me think about singing along in the car as I drive by the beach with the top down (or sitting shotgun in my mum's ford as we do the stretch of the golden mile in Southend if we're being realistic, no American-dream here.) 'Shadow' is delightfully more towards the indie side of the record, but still uses that enthusiastic vocal layering in the chorus to bring it back to pop perfection.

My favourite cut from the album is 'Like a River Runs', an equally infectious positive vibe track, perfect to sing out all your feelings too, that sounds like you've probably heard it on a advert before. Antonoff's vocals are much deeper in the verses and hark back to the pop-punk sound I referred to before. If I sing along fast enough, I can fake a Scottish accent better than I've ever managed to before. (Aside from singing / shouting along to Biffy Clyro.)

Strange desires is a perfectly cliche summer anthem album. It's lifting me way out of the grey days in London and giving me life as the kids say these days. Well worth having a listen and cheesy dance to, because I said so.