Uncertain Joys

One of the troubles of starting your career as teenage upstarts who named their debut album Young for Eternity is that youve set yourself up to have trouble growing up in public. The Subways were teens when they started the group in 2000, but in the year 2023 theyre pushing middle age, and the sort of rock & roll rebellion that was their birthright when they released their first LP in 2005 no longer looks as comfortable on them. The bands fifth studio album, 2023s Uncertain Joys, subtly acknowledges theyre not quite the folks they used to be, and in more ways than one -- this is their first LP since original drummer and co-founder Josh Morgan left and new timekeeper Camille Phillips came aboard. The music is still rooted in guitar-based rock that nods to punk, grunge, 90s alternative rock, and Brit-pop, yet the subtle, audible use of Auto-Tune on the vocals and the poppy melodies and keyboard accents on "Love Waiting on You" and the title cut, the acoustic guitar sheen on "Lavender Amelie," and the heart-on-sleeve power ballad affectations of "Joli Coeur" make this feel like the work of people who want to add a few more tricks to their repertoire. (And the attempted social commentary of "Influencer Killed the Rock Star" has just a touch of "Old Man Yells at Cloud" in it, as they rant about those damn kids bucking for digital fame.) That said, Uncertain Joys is the work of a band whose comfort zone is still bashing it out in time-honored power trio fashion, sounding just a bit less energetic but just as swaggering as ever on numbers like "You Kill My Cool," "Black Wax," and "Futures." Guitarist and lead singer Billy Lunn and bassist and backing vocalist Charlotte Cooper are no less confident than they were on 2015s The Subways, and Camille Phillips shows off a finesse and punch on the drums thats more than welcome. The Subways are still good at what theyve been doing for the better part of two decades on Uncertain Joys, but it seems they dont think thats quite enough, and thats the rub – their pop moves are well-crafted, but its when they follow formula that they really come to life, and thats a paradox that doesnt quite resolve itself in these 12 tunes. ~ Mark Deming

ブルージーなガレージ・ロックというバックボーンの太さを、音像が80sぽかったり、60sぽかったり、曲調がファンキーだったり、フォーキーだったりと曲ごとに変化を付けながら見せ付ける全12曲。新たに女性ドラマーを迎えた2000年結成のUKトリオが8年ぶりにリリースしたこの5枚目のアルバムを聴く限り、そのロックンロール熱はこれっぽっちも冷めていないようだ。ここからもう一盛り上がりしてほしい!
bounce (C)山口智男