Young Guv

Ben Cook has taken Young Guv through several iterations of lo-fi fuzz, garage pop pluck and indie pop fizz and now, with a proper LP coming out on Slumberland he knocks the fidelity up a few notches and makes an album that somehow nails the feeling of 80's power pop upstarts on a mall tour. There's a bubblegum sheen to the record that's evident in its glamour shots production, all soft focus and splashed pastels with those superimposed sparkles that date it so nicely. Ut feels big in the way everything in 1983 did but with a heart that feels like its pushing as hard as possible to reach the kids in the food court, a teen band knocking out Dwight Twilley covers to the 10 kids who made their mom drive them from three towns over. Its no longer shoe-stringing the recording but there's still something that feels like Ripe For Love spent some time on a shelf in a Goodwill only to be found by a teen with the right kind of ears and a hand-me-down tape player. Or maybe a discarded copy found under your sister's bed that just hits you right post breakup and lifts your spirits, a secret strength through foam headphones. No matter what the aura beaming from these scrawled notebook pop tracks, the point is that Cook nails that yearning, exuberant pop that feels like a younger time. He's got his finger on the pulse of an innocence that feels tactile in its star-eyed sizzle.

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