Having given a flavour of the EP with the jangly ‘Sleep’ which sits somewhere between Interpol and The Smiths, it turns out War Waves have been withholding. New single and lead track ‘Lion’s Head’ is a pure fucking belter, with the drive and drag of The Twilight Sad. ‘Some of us are cunts / some of us are sweet’ Marc Newby sings with the perfect balance of gloom and bile – which has come to be War Waves’ trademark. Lovey melodies and chiming guitars sit with lyrics that are bitter and bleak.
They tag their brand of post-millennial 80s-influenced indie as ‘anxiety rock’, and there isn’t a second on this concise document of the inner workings of an anxietised mind that doesn’t crackle with tension and emotional sincerity.
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‘Irregular Arms’ brings the EP to a thumping close with a loping rhythm and guitars that build upwards providing a backdrop to anguished lyrics about diseased skin. It’s awkward, uncomfortable, and everything that defines War Waves.
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