Hyacinth

グラスゴーのインディー・ポップ魂を引き継ぐバンド、スピニング・コイン待望の新作。
スピニング・コインによる3年ぶり2作目となる新作!メンバーの脱退により、活動の拠点をベルリンに移すなど環境の変化の中、制作された本作はグラスゴーとベルリンでレコーディング。パステルズやティーンエイジ・ファンクラブなど90'sギターポップに感じた初期衝動に憑かれたパンクスピリッツ、グラスゴー産のポップセンス、躍動感あるれる楽曲が並ぶ1枚。
(C)福岡パルコ店:寺本 将巳

ベルセバ、ティーンエイジ・ファンクラブ、パステルズ
グラスゴーのインディー・ポップ魂を引き継ぐ新星スピニング・コイン待望の最新作!!

パステルズのスティーヴン・パステルを後見人にDomino傘下のGeographic Musicよりデビューしたグラスゴー・インディーの新星スピニング・コインが3年ぶり2作目となる最新作『Hyacinth』をリリース!!メンバーの脱退、フロントマンであるショーン・アームストロングと新メンバーのレイチェル・テイラーが活動の拠点をベルリンに移すなど、バンドを取り巻く環境の変化によって、よりメンバー間の結束が強くなったというエピソードの中制作された本作は、グラスゴーとベルリンでレコーディングを敢行。先行シングル「Feel You More Than WorldRight Now」を筆頭にグラスゴー・マナーのポップ・センスはより磨きがかかり、ハートウォーミングで躍動感あふれる楽曲が揃う快心作となった。

Spinning Coins debut album Permo was classic low-key indie pop all full of burnished melancholy, intertwined guitars, keen observations and reverb-heavy production. Songwriters Sean Armstrong and Jack Mellin both proved adept at dishing out songs that were shyly catchy and a little bit weird around the edges, and the band delivered them with a light, almost ghostly touch. On Hyacinth, the weirdness takes center stage and the band blows up the measured restraint found on the debut to come up with a sound thats rambling, wooly and a little bit unhinged. Armstrong and Mellin seem to have made a pact to each get about 50% less inhibited, both in their writing and the way they deliver the songs vocally. Armstrong unleashes his warbly, high pitched voice in fine Tom Verlaine style throughout the album, throwing off any shackles and just letting it rip. Mellin, too, adds some power and grit to his more classically indie style; on tracks like the rumbling Get High he comes across so forcefully one wonders if someone outside the band hijacked the mic. Along with the looser, sometimes wayward, singing the pair bring to the record, the songs cut a wider swatch through the indie pop landscape this time around. Permo felt very tethered to a melancholy, post-Pastels sound; here they begin the album with a genre-defying track, Avenues Of Spring, that sounds a little like a drunk Verlaine fronting Destroyer as they play an outer space waltz, then take off in all directions. Feel You More Than The World Right Now is a buoyant slice of Postcard Records pop given extra juice by Armstrongs strangled wail of a vocal, Ghosting is insistent post-punk with jangling minor key guitars and buzzing synths, Its Alright is rugged 90s rock with interesting guitar chords and powerful vocals from Mellin, and bassist Rachel Taylor turns in the albums nicest moment with the gently swinging late night soul ballad Black Cat. As the album swerves along gleefully, its hard to predict what will come next but its clear that the band have invested the album with a dose of energy and excitement that was missing on the otherwise fine Permo. They sound like a band with a burning desire to make music that punches hard and leaves a deep impression when it connects. It does so more often than not, and even when the band dial down the intensity a little, like on the lilting Soul Trader, they still play with enough fire to leave a searing mark. Their debut album promised a lot, Hyacinth makes good on that and then some. The band work hard to expand their sound in interesting ways and the end result of their efforts is an album thats challenging, bracing and almost defiantly, certainly thrillingly, unique. ~ Tim Sendra