WUNDERHORSE - Cub

Wunderhorse, the solo project of Jacob Slater – musician, ex-Dead Pretties member, and actor (he recently played Paul Cook in the miniseries "Pistol") – delivers one of the best debuts of 2022 in the indie-rock/alternative sphere. Sam Fender and Fontaines D.C. vouch for it, with the latter in particular declaring themselves fans, having had the young British artist open for them on dates of their respective tours. While Slater's first band had tried to fit into that indie-punk crossover scene, leaning toward Strokes and the like, here the musician shows greater maturity, presenting the public with songs that had sat in a drawer for ages, now brought to completion thanks to interpretive tools he didn't previously have. "Cub" houses two souls, one brit and one rooted in American tradition spanning the Nineties and early 2000s, which emerge through a repeated alternation of energetic moments and intense ballads.

Slowly building momentum, and immediately establishing the guitar as the record's great protagonist, is the pseudo electric ballad "Butterflies": marked by gloomy, somber verses and surges in the chorus, it plays on grunge attitudes and counts among its chief inspirations "Mystery White Boy", the live album by Jeff Buckley. Next comes a blatant tribute to Americana and the southern riffs of "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd in "Leader Of The Pack", a track steeped in late-Nineties echoes, among the most adolescent and best-loved in the artist's live repertoire. Also riding the wave between the Nineties and the early 2000s is the fluid guitar work of the breezy "Purple", which puts the rhythm section front and center, while the crescendo of "Atlantis" looks to the indie-rock/folk production of Elliott Smith, whose Beatles-esque influences are recognizable.

In the gentle tremors of "17", the oldest track on the album, we find reflections of the constant search for a sense of belonging typical of adolescence, followed by a heartfelt dedication to a friend who recovered from an illness in "Teal", which brushes up against emo and post-hardcore territory. Among the standout tracks is "Poppy", torn between psych drifts in the direction of Screaming Trees and clear baggy echoes of Stone Roses and Charlatans, followed by a further return to brit roots, the light and spare "Mantis", where small nods to Oasis and Suede can be found.

The guitar passages of "Girl Behind The Glass" combine subtle flourishes of britpop melancholy with a chorus that veers into Semisonic territory, while the loose-limbed "Morphine" sounds as though it stepped straight out of an MTV Unplugged from the golden era.

The closing word goes to the epic, liberating march of "Epilogue", carried by an assertive bassline and hypnotic, noisy guitar passages, where Jacob looks back one last time, bidding a final farewell to the age of innocence. Though it conjures numerous late-millennium atmospheres and music scenes, fitting for the subjects it tackles, the sound of "Cub" always remains credible. The album holds steady track by track, with no need for filler, taking stock of several formative experiences from Slater's past, and closes an important chapter of the artist's life, making way for something entirely new and (given the strength of this debut, we hope) worthwhile.

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28/11/2022