LET´S WRESTLE - Let’s Wrestle

Wesley Patrick Gonzales's experience behind the scenes of Felt (it was actually Lawrence who suggested the band's name), Wedding Present and Veronica Falls, along with his friendship with Darren Hayman, give the London musician that broader vision needed to free Let's Wrestle's output from the great melting pot of indie-pop. That doesn't mean the band's third album has the perfect coordinates to best represent the evolution of britpop, but among the thirteen tracks of "Let's Wrestle" there's certainly that sense of maturity which allows the album to outlast the flow of a brief season.

That peculiar indolence and listlessness that characterizes their pop-music tempers the sunniness of the harmonies and vocals, and time spent with Steve Albini (producer of the previous "Nursing Home") has also left its mark on the orchestral arrangements, which sound angular and never merely decorative.

An elegant and often singular record, the new chapter from Let's Wrestle has all the charm it needs to win over even detractors of English pop: "Opium Den" is the kind of track you'd expect to hear from the Pixies or Hüsker Dü in a tender mood, "Always A Friend" has exactly the kind of pop-psych guitar sound we've always loved in the Byrds and Shins, and "Irish Sea" brings in folk elements with a lovely sixties flavour.

It's albums like these that allow English indie-rock and pop to hold on to that dignity and cross-generational appeal so rarely found in bigger, more successful bands: there's the unselfconsciousness of the Kinks ("Watching Over You"), the lushness of chamber-folk ("Tied Up"), the morning-after melancholy ("Codeine And Marshmallows"), but above all an attention to that small imperfection capable of turning simple harmonies into something more visceral and unspeakable (the gorgeous lyrical chaos of "Don't Want To Know Your Name").

The alternation between jangle-pop ("Care For You", "Rain, Ruins, Revolution", "David You Know") and introspective ballads ("Wrexam Aluminium" and the aforementioned "Tied Up" and "Irish Sea") is clear proof of a songwriting maturity that makes Let's Wrestle a pleasing confirmation for fans of English pop, and beyond.

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08/05/2014