The Darlings

I went to New York once and the one thing that I have to say about that little excursion was that New Yorkers are the most self-obsessed, closed minded, rudest fucking people I have ever met. The cringe-worthy patriotism is near vomit inducing and the countless crop-topped, chino wearing, bird-perving twenty-somethings really defined the word asshole for me while I was there. But the scenery, oh boy, the scenery, that was lovely.

I felt set in my ignorant ways after this. I don't like these people I thought. Naive? oh probably so, but I was really quite shocked at how some people could act, especially around some of my female friends. Dirty perverted, cock-sure, toss pots. But! and there's always a but, I like to think that at any point this can change.

Maybe I just had a dodgy experience with these people. It was obvious we didn't quite go to the right places when I walked into a club playing some ghetto-garbage crunk music, but it was a holiday, so fuck it, yeah? I'm always willing to be open minded though, and the new Darlings record has made me think that maybe there's a light at the end of the subway.

A lavishly lo-fi indie outfit from the East Coast, they've harnessed elements all the way from static-shoegaze to skippy, beach-bound surf-rock that sounds like The Beach Boys with an added get-up-and-riot Stokes mentality.

'Teenage Girl' gives heed to past simplicity. It's an utterly indie back-to-basics song with obligatory 'do do do', but surprisingly this track extinguishes all your preconceptions of its bubbly, wide-grinned attributes as a splatter of unexpected distortion begins to kick up a shit-fit mid-way though, leaving the path wide open for 'If This Is Love' and it's West Coast, stoner teenage revolt that screams scruffy hair and rip curl.

'We're Not Going' is a Sunkist Cali head-boper that closes the last rays of the Summer sun before we hit the torrential rain and long nights of nothing to do. A cheeky and rather predictable solo ensues, but you know what? this isn't a ground breaking record, but it was never meant to be, it's simply a barrel load of fun that encases summer in a fistful of songs for you to break open when the gloomy winter gets too much.