Hailing from South London and Oxford respectfully, adults and Spank Hair have become dotted entities within the UK’s burgeoning DIY indie pop scene over the past several years, and for good reason. Whilst each band may have their own distinctive sound formed from personal inspirations and experiences – adults coming from the flock of Johnny Foreigner and The Beths, Spank Hair carrying the essence of Algernon Cadwallader and Say Anything – their shared ability to charismatically document the experience of surviving in the vice grip of late stage capitalism and under the weight of mental turmoil is one and the same. To call them birds of a feather may be a cliched and pretentious idiom, but truly, despite their differences, their ability to create airy, jangly, joyful and carefree music from beneath the weight the world is a shared skill and one that’s just so endearing. Their new four track split EP …in the big league showcases this brilliantly.
Featuring two tracks from each band and clocking in at just over 10 minutes long, this record may be brief, but it is refreshing. Despite being trapped under the dead weight of capitalism, heads most heavy and an entire world set to crack any minute from the strain of countless pressures, adults and Spank Hair sound far from being exasperated here. Instead, they both sound laid back and flourishing; least on the surface anyway. ‘trouble’ and ‘discipline’, the two tracks courtesy of adults and first half of this EP present this wonderfully. Resonating that sense of sunny breeziness that’s reminiscent of recent breakout sensations SUDS, the fuzzy and delightfully slight lo-fi delivery helps offset the inherent emotion that drives these songs. However, they don’t dilute it, nor do they hinder it’s fluidity, something that’s highlighted in the more morose ‘discipline’, a track that sounds cool and collected, but host to something frantic within it’s lyricism and thematic manner of trying to keep it together amidst a life in constant motion.
In terms of the two songs from Spank Hair – the latter half of this EP – it’s here where the more juxtaposition that makes this EP so enduring takes form. Displaying a maximalist approach that contrasts brilliantly with adults more fluttering sound, Spank Hair are direct and immediate here, with ‘Cowboy Scene’ in particular presignature such a fact. Addressing the desire to be the most rootin’ and tootin’ cowboys in the scene (or least anyone but “just some guy”) the track see’s the Oxford gang channeling the excitable giddiness of Bears In Trees in thanks to it’s childlike excitement and chirping brass that characterises the track. It’s the livest track to the selection, but one that contrasts wonderfully not just with the more meditatively composed following of ‘Many Phones Ago’, but with the rest of the track-listing of this EP. However, it’s also one that gels with the tracks to be had here and one that highlights just how brilliantly this EP works.
Each of the tracks’s here has it’s own identity, mood and delivery whilst still hard-heartedly carrying and emitting that sense of approachable breeziness aforementioned. In an a time where the very oxygen we breathe feels heavy and laden with a sense of sagging weight, this bundle of songs feels like a well-required and well-earned breathe of fresh air. Regardless if one is a fan of these bands or are experiencing adults and Spank Hair for the first time, there’s plenty to adore here should one be a fan of delightfully realised and breezy jangle pop.