Current Joys, headed up by Nevada musician Nick Rattigan, are best when they crank up the distortion, but that’s not to say there’s no merit in their sweeter moments too. Rattigan has a way with a bubblegum melody line, which he smears in glitches and crackles.
So ‘Rosebud’ is very much about the duality. The melancholy is very much baked into their sound, as on which has woozy strings. But then,’Chaos’, ‘Hole,’ ‘Knight Of Swords’ and ‘Blood On The Stereo’ all feature the kind of distortion that built crushes on Kevin Shields too.
Playfulness is also very much a key element, as on the pun-tastic ‘Holloween’ which begins with a “mwahahahaha!” and descends into sweetly rendered all-American indie pop. There’s a little Yo La Tango and Teenage Fanclub in its DNA too, which only endears me to it more. “Lovely stuff”, as Shakin’ Stevens definitely didn’t say of this charming album.
Out via They Are Evil on Nov 4th.
