Swansea Sound Twentieth Century

On their second album, Swansea Sound present a set of songs as infectious as anything from their previous incarnations. The raw energy of Hue’s old band The Pooh Sticks is still there; the indiepop sugar rush of Amelia’s Heavenly is as sweet as ever. But these songs are laced with venom and sardonic wit. Their debut single ‘Corporate Indie Band’ was a sly tribute to a music scene that had lost all its authenticity, with bands in hock to social media managers: corporate puppets play-acting at independence. Here, they take it further with a look at the heroes of their youth – the fabled eras of rock, punk, post-punk – and considering whether the prophets that emerged from those scenes were any use whatsoever. In ‘Paradise’, the electric synth-bleeps conjure up the 1980s with all its optimism about a digital nirvana: one that turned out to consist of Cambridge Analytica, OnlyFans, Spotify, incel-populated chatrooms... The title track plays out the egotism of a punk rocker in combat gear, armed with a major label deal, singing about revolution. But ‘Far Far Away’ is a pretty straightforward love song to Pete Shelley. Other tracks address the Twenty First Century: ‘Markin’ It Down’ is a duet between Hue, a vinyl obsessive, and Amelia, the owner of a second-hand record shop, with him searching for bargains amidst the over-supply of Yard Act albums... ‘Click It And Pay’ is a duet between a harassed home-worker doing some online shopping and the woman in the fulfilment warehouse who’s under pressure to pack his requisites. All these songs are indiepop, if you insist. They are full of earworms and will make you want to dance. But they're also full of funny, complex, mordant ideas - and maybe that’s why you’ll want to hear them many more times.