Hater - Sincere

 

The familiar has an incredibly strong seductive draw when listening to new music, particularly as you make your way through middle age as I am. Malmo's Hater encourage the association making process, big time on their latest album Sincere. 

This is definitely a case of 'spot the influences'. You might as well invite all your saddo, record shop haunting mates round and listen through to it, taking turns to shout 'that reminds me of' while trawling your memory banks through the last four decades of white guitar alternative pop music.

Described on their latest press release as a 'fuzzed out haze of dark and arresting shoegaze pop.' Phew! This might have a ring of truth in it but it's not the whole story. Hater may resemble My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Deerhunter, but listening to Sincere it become abundantly clear that they're happy to steal from just about anybody.

That's by no means intended as a slur. They're canny operators of the highest order. Scandinavian magpies. Personally I was reminded of guitar operators of the early Eighties as much as the early Nineties. The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, the originators of this chiming, vaguely gothic, arpeggiated sound.

While there's little here that actually reminds you of Hater themselves and they're certainly not actually saying anything much except how immediate the appeal of this stuff when you're young but also ultimately, how enduring. The thrill of it never quite goes away. This should appeal strangely and equally to both 16 and 60 year olds.