Good to fall in love with something new, just before Christmas Day. Which is something I've managed to do this year. Not a person this time but a very good record. Nothing Feels Natural To Me, the debut album from The S-Bends. Appropriately they're an Australian band as that country, (sub-continent?), has far and faraway the best music scene in the world right now.
They're not from Melbourne though which appears to be the hub of what's going on down there. Instead they hail from Sydney, a city that seems something of an underachieving sibling right now by comparison. But never mind, because judging by this they've got at least one small marvel in The S-Bends.
Brief, unassuming songs, often eschewing standard verse / chorus straitjackets but hitting home each time due to their assured melodic and lyrical pull, the record is an absolute joy and seems like one set to burrow ever further under the skin with repeated plays. I could easily post the whole thing here, such is its constancy, there's not a weak track on it.
So where is it coming from? The highest compliment I can give it as that it recalls the mythic pleasures of compatriots The Triffids and The Go-Betweens at their Eighties peaks. The songs here evoke the narrative guile and depth of both bands without actually being indebted or structurally plagiaristic of either.
As literary as it is musical, with the mic swapped between band members to give its textures different hues. The record would have comfortably made my own end of year list but it's come to my attention too late. Nothing Feels Natural To Me is a considerable album and I proffer it to you as a gift on Christmas Day. Make a point of exploring its joys for yourself!
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