Good? Don’t be so humble boys. The second album from Melbourne four-piece The Stevens is another breezy collection (just the 18 songs, compared to their debut’s 24) of so-called “scratchy pop”, an allusion to the band’s preference for home recording, fuzzy guitars and low mix vocals combined with their Guided By Voices-esque earworms.
Brevity is king: no song overstays its welcome, as if every idea is given just enough oxygen to splutter into life and then suffocated before it loses the run of itself.
Given the quantity of material there are some duff tracks but the (very) good outweighs the bad with Chancer, King Hit, Cruiser, Keep Me Occupied and I Know (Charles & Jerry) the intoxicating, grin-inducing highlights.
