Bearded Redneck: “You’re Shannon’s buddy right? We met last year. You drove me and my brother back from Palm Springs. We hired another wheelman. I spent six months in jail. My brother, he got himself killed. I got this sweet job coming up.”
Driver: “How ’bout this. You shut your mouth. Or I’ll kick your teeth down your throat and I’ll shut it for you.”
There’s something defensive about Team Picture‘s debut record, ‘Recital‘, a two-part fuzz fest that swirls and drives to great aplomb. The band, another class act from a thriving Leeds indie scene that continues to surprise and innovate with a sound unique to the area, are riding high on the back of singles ‘Back To Bay Six’ and ‘Birthday Blues’, but with Recital, the band finds themselves adopting a tough guy arrogance, with a selection of songs to back up the bravado.
From the get-go of the record, we’re treat to unfamiliar territories. The caustic, post-punk, guitar-driven tendencies of the band relegated to the latter half of Recital, replaced by a selection of three tracks that unashamedly wear their influences on their sleeves. ‘(I Have A) Little Secret’, the opening track, greets us with a chorus laden intro, the drums hitting a backbeat, into a syncopated burst of synthesiser and bass, complete with synth solo to welcome us to the album. This is the ’80s, this is a neon coming of age, this is the best of Blondie, Depeche Mode, and it’s so Drive it makes me want that jacket, Again.
With a brief demonstration to their pop prowess in the opener, second track ‘Strange Years’ goes in full from the get-go. A synth-fuzz bomb of colour and angst, painting a picture of a coming of age via a question answer. “How’s your course?/It’s really cool/the kids have got no future here”. “How are things in Coventry?/Don’t touch me or else I’ll lose it”. It’s like Shane Meadows made The Breakfast Club.
‘Weird Movements‘, the last track of side one, gifts a nuanced indie sensibility not displayed from the one-two punch of the initial tracks on Recital. The vocals are switched, from the powerful female vocals of the intro to a falsetto, lending the track similar qualities to that of Wild Beasts and Clock Opera with a chugging groove, pulsating synth work and a catchy if not off-kilter chorus. With that, we’re at our halfway point, ‘Theme From Flint‘ offering us an ambient meander across the band, as instruments soar and swoon with grand vigour. The production on this record from Matt Peel (Eagulls, Pulled Apart By Horses) particularly shines in this brooding ethereal bridge to our second part.
Billed as “a Talking Heads song from an alternate dimension” by the band, ‘(I Want Your) Life Hack’ gives us the third vocal change of the album, offering a grittier dimension than previous tracks with an absolute woolly mammoth of a riff to digest. I cannot stress how great the fuzzier tones on the album are mixed, with such unique qualities that weave in and out of one another’s instrument lines. In to the penultimate track ‘Break Yr Heart’, we’re treated to a blues driven banger, Jim Morrison vocals amped up to the max. It’s all a taster for album closer ‘Love Irritant‘, the noisiest and most distorted on record. Sharp vocal deliveries in bursts temper this firey track from taking off, with the eventual synth driven ending offering a worthy bookend to a fist fight of an album.
It’s a big statement from a real treat of a band, upping songwriting and production values tenfold since their inception, the more experimental and pop structured of the tracks take a particular shine on this album, displaying a sound very unique to the band yet instantly recognisable. This is a Recital worth jumping in on.
Recital is out now on BIG DUMB MUSIC LTD.
