Pop punk can frequently feel like a panic attack! at the disco. From Castlerock on the Northern Irish coast come Brand New Friend, sounding as energetically, youthfully angst-ridden as you’d expect. Seatbelts For Aeroplanes melds hyperactivity, hypertension, hyperventilation and hyperbolic emotion. It’s essentially like opening a shaken-up can of Fanta every two-and-a-half minutes.
The album has many of the hallmarks of the genre, like anecdotes of puppy love or its disastrously unrequited counterpart. You frequently hear unspoken monologues of accusation or regret, the narrator dealing with self-loathing on a semi-regular basis. Lyrically, the album can be a challenge. ‘Hate It When You Have To Go’ talks cutely of sitting with a loved one and pretending, in a child-like manner, that car park lights are stars. The gaucheness and the act of turning the mundane into the romantic warms up the empathy muscles quite pleasantly.
Yet the title track, ‘Seatbelts For Aeroplanes’ begins with the torturous, “You’re like a seatbelt on an aeroplane with me lately./ You’re more for making me feel safe/ Than for actual safety,” and proceeds onto “Call me a taxi/ And have it drop me at your feet.” Seatbelts on aeroplanes are largely for take-off, landing and periods of turbulence. On this album, the safety belt sign is on a little too frequently.
Whereas it may be regularly gung-ho and breakneck in pace, it is also overly safe in being similar from song to song. There are moments when you think they’re going to break free, or do something unexpected. Opener, ‘Mediocre At Best’ starts with a sustained, fuzzed, low guitar that could easily go into a grungey bassline and some serious screaming. Closing tune, ‘Cold’ begins with a drum battery that is reminiscent of Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’ but like its bookending friend, heads down more predictable lines.
The obvious highlight of the album is the first single to be taken from it, ‘Girl’, by which Huw Stephens was sufficiently moved to play it back-to-back on his Radio 1 show. It is, perhaps, a misleading representation of the album. It has the largest ratio of punk to pop, as well as a guitar solo to (briefly) transcend the manic strumming. It shares a wee bit of heritage with The Undertones; even though Taylor Johnson’s vocals sound more American than Fergal Sharkey’s, the line “Joaney rides her bike to school” feels like a nod to their Londonderry forbears.
Similarly, the shared vocals of Taylor and his sister, Lauren Johnson are another strong point that the band exploit on this record. Whether in harmony, or as a call-and-response, there is a sibling symbiosis that will serve them well in the future. Another highlight, ‘The Blame’ has the two voices combine emotively and wisely with, “I was raised to believe/ What you believe and what you see/ Are two separate entities.”
Seatbelts For Aeroplanes, like aeroplane food, will pass the time, will hopefully pass through you without any bother and will be neither the finest nor the worst fare you’ve ever digested.
Seatbelts For Aeroplanes is out now on Xtra Mile Recordings.
