It’s startling just how quickly Smoosh are maturing. Sure, on their UK debut late last year they wowed the London hipsters with a show of infectious indiepop laser beamed at hearts poised and ready to be broken, but already they sound fuller, more sure of their sound and of the possibilities and potentials locked inside their hearts and minds.
The songs from their debut She Like Electric album sound great of course, and never more so than on crowd pleasers like ‘Rad’ and ‘La Pump’, but it’s the new songs that really cut to the quick. They reach out for higher ground, show a healthy development in structure and scope. It’s particularly obvious on the track that opens their new album: ‘Find A Way’ is a meteoric slice of Pop heaven that I swear will have you humming its melody for months on end. It is instinctive and calculated, knowing and absurdly natural all at once. It’s a Pop song that does exactly what all Pop songs do; it bulges in all the right places, knows the power of the pause and the inestimable value of knowing how to end just so, leaving you begging for more. It’s the kind of three minute Pop song that the ‘repeat’ function of CD players and iPods were designed for. And the great thing is, it’s even better live than on record, with Chloe’s awesome drumming powering it to new heights of magnificence. I swear, if you could bottle the spirit of this song, and this performance, you would make millions.
But if ‘Find A Way’ is a natural peak, the rest of the show is barely less thrilling. There’s that Italian House piano refrain again, sounding grittier and dirtier than ever, and hey, there’s even an instrumental that bares its teeth and growls like some madcap ‘60s psych Mod anthem, which in my dreams is called Theme From Smoosh. For some reason it makes me think of The Eyes meets The Fabulous Stains, and you know, I can think of few things more appealing.
Smoosh are such an astonishing proposition, sometimes I need to rub my eyes and clear my ears just to be sure I’m not dreaming. They are developing at such a hectic pace and from such a heady starting point that it’s really quite dizzying to imagine where they will go next, never mind where they might end up. Trust me, there will be few Pop journeys as mesmerising over the coming years.
© 2006 Alistair Fitchett