INNOCENTS ABROAD - Late Spring

Thirty years of silence! Martin Malone's band returns to the scene after settling misunderstandings that lasted over two decades. Hailed back in the day as one of the most vibrant answers to Rem, but also a solid alternative to Miracle Legion and 10000 Maniacs, the Irish outfit Innocents Abroad pick up the thread abruptly cut off after just two albums.

"Late Spring" not only reunites the original lineup (the other two members are Stuart Hilton and Peter Mills, joined by bassist Jane Breen) but also confirms the band's defining traits: jangle-pop, a Husker Du-style bite and a strong, unadorned melodic streak are the glue holding together ten tracks sharp enough to keep the ghost of the superfluous, derivative album at bay.

The history of rock music is full of clones and cover bands dressed up as the next big thing, but in the case of Innocents Abroad what really works isn't so much nostalgia as the consistency with which Martin Malone and co. carry on their passionate blend of Paisley Underground, proto-grunge and Love — a creative choice that in the late 1980s didn't pay off for the band, condemning them to the same obscurity that swallowed up other contemporaries (does anyone remember Energy Orchard?), and that also kept bands like La's and Shack from conquering the charts, which by then had fallen prey to Britpop and its offshoots.

"Late Spring" is a gritty sequence of folk-rock and jangle-pop postcards, made corrosive by a lo-fi production that's at times rough and stony. "King Of Luxembourg" is the single that started it all, and it's also the creative blueprint the band sticks to throughout the album, at times with remarkable results such as the raging "The Larg's Hum", the rollicking "Cave Canem" or the infectious melody of "Dandelion Clock".

If we want to cite Rem once again as a reference point for the album, it's fair to say that "Late Spring" leans more towards "Monster" than "Automatic For The People". Indeed, you have to wait until the penultimate track "Astrud's House" to notice a slight drop in tension, which gives way to a more relaxed, ballad-like tone.

The return of Innocents Abroad may seem insignificant when viewed against the broad, complex landscape of contemporary rock-pop, but a statement of consistency and creative vigor is no less important than the potential next big thing, especially when it breezes by in thirty-seven minutes of pleasurable, invigorating guitar riffs, dynamic rhythms and cascades of melodies that under a different name would have people crying miracle. "Late Spring" isn't a revolutionary record, but for many connoisseurs it could be a potential guilty pleasure to keep tucked away for future lean times.

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22/02/2026