THE CORDS - The Cords

Stop everyone! From Scotland comes a genuine breath of fresh air, a debut preceded by a cassette and a flexidisc that sold out literally within days, a slap in the face to the logic of the manufactured next big thing, born entirely spontaneously.

Grace and Eva are two sisters, but also inseparable friends, raised in a household where music spun on the "decks" like food and medicine for the mind and body: Nirvana, Cure, Camera Obscura but also Shop Assistants and Talulah Gosh.

With a batch of songs that are energetic yet already solid and mature, Cords have played far and wide alongside Vaselines, Belle And Sebastian, Camera Obscura, BMX Bandits and Chime School (check out the live sets available free on Bandcamp). The two teenagers from Greenock revive the ethic and aesthetic of Sarah Records and the Do It Yourself logic of the C86 scene. There's nothing calculated or premeditated about it, just a passion for Scottish jangle-pop and all the finest flavours of indie-pop, with no geographic or stylistic boundaries (punk, shoegaze, pop, jangle-pop, fuzz), with only voices, guitar and drums taking centre stage (bass and keyboards remain occasional additions).

Shamelessly catchy, stickier than flypaper, The Cords' songs are a genuine revelation. Thirteen pop gems in just over thirty minutes, thirteen songs in which exuberance and freshness come together in a vein that's both vivid and inspired.

Crystalline and sharp, "Fabulist" is the first thrilling calling card from Eva and Grace Tedeschi: a burst of rhythm and melody that rekindles old flames (Primitives). But it's only one of the many memorable tracks on "The Cords". The melodic surge that tempers the relentless, lightning-fast "Just Don't Know (How To Be You)" is a punch to the heart and a caress on the face, gorgeous, irresistible, thrilling. Of the three singles that preceded the album, the strangest is "I'm Not Sad", a breezy yet bittersweet slice of indie-pop graced by a perfect vocal interplay and an urgency that justifies its short runtime: just one minute and forty seconds. "October" also clocks in under two minutes, the most punk and carefree track on the record. The same goes for "Vera", a joyful if brief romp set to a "ba ba ba" refrain that betrays a slight melancholy, the same melancholy that animates the two pop-punk chords of "Doubt It's Gonna Change", foreshadowing the record's more ambitious moments.

The Cords' debut is a genuine shot of adrenaline, built on a basic formula of raw but skillfully assembled riffs and vocal duels. With the scratchy, shoegaze-rough "You", Eva and Grace flip the script: it's the pop song Husker Du and Sonic Youth would have wanted to record together, a track that wins over even the last impassive, unfazed listeners.

At this point the two Scottish girls pull one of their early classics out of the hat, "Bo's New Haircut": tell me, what could be more irreverent and spontaneous than a song dedicated to your own dog? Just enough time to catch your breath before another shoegaze jolt hits, this time infected with darkwave, in "Yes It's True", one of the most energetic tracks which, together with "Done With You", keeps the album's adrenaline levels high.

What remains are three moments of dreamy childhood. The more conversational tone of "Weird Feeling" is not only unexpected but also the result of instrumental choices (loose rhythmic patterns and jagged guitar chords) that open up intriguing possibilities for the future. With "Rather Not Stay" the duo has fun shuffling the deck with harmonic and melodic shifts that brush up against the magic of dream-pop.

With the gorgeously sweet and never saccharine "When You Said Goodbye", the curtain falls: the track, also chosen as a single, is an instant classic, one of those songs that makes you want to start the whole thing over again just to savor that delicious ending once more.

If I've come across as a bit too enthusiastic, no matter, I still trust my instincts and I'm not afraid of the outrage from those who'll be scandalized by my final verdict: we have a masterpiece on our hands, delivered by two very young Scottish girls, and everything else is just noise.

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01/09/2025