Amazingly enough, "Meat Pie Argument" is actually INSTANT SPECIES' (count 'em) FOURTH album, and it's stuffed with so many quality tunes that it's hard to reconcile these Huddersfield boys only still enjoying local star celebrity and recording on their own label.
There again, before 'independent' became resolutely 'indie', the DIY ethic often produced some of the very best music around, and this writer for one is heartened to discover there are still those out there like INSTANT SPECIES who have the guts to stick to their guns.
Because, if there's any residue of justice breathing in the suffocating pop atmosphere, INSTANT SPECIES deserve to break through to a far wider audience. Superficially, they're certainly purveyors of great (and slightly subversive) Brit(ish) guitar pop: the type that never entirely goes out of fashion, but with enough variations to ensure your attention never wavers too far.
Certainly, there are enough gems here to fill a decent size Russian diamond mine. The swaggering guitars, unexpected feedback and psychodrama of "Better With You" is as good an introduction as any, while the yearning'n'tender "7 Stories High" and the no-nonsense Buzzcocks-knee-The-Kinks-in-the-bollocks pop of "Failing To See" suggest Instant Species can craft emotional shapes out of the air at will.
Musically, INSTANT SPECIES are a tight crew, with no one member of the team hogging the limelight. Rick Garnett's vocals still remind me of a less pretentious Brett Anderson (though with added surreality), and his imploring vocals are the making of tracks like "7 Stories High" and "What's The Point You're Trying To Make?"
You get the feeling that at this stage INSTANT SPECIES have the confidence to bring unexpected secret weapons into their sonic arsenal whenever they're called for,and "Meat Pie Argument" benefits from the inclusion of tracks like "Jamaica Park" - with its' full-on 2-Tone horns and itchy Ska rhythms - and the jazzy shuffle'n'skank of "The Boy Who Doesn't Know What's Good For Him."
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INSTANT SPECIES are obviously serious about what they do, but they're not so po-faced they can't find room for knowing, well-observed humour in their best tracks of all. Indeed, the hilarious, but wise porno-mag blatherings of "Top Shelf" ("Nothing beats a real girl, can't ignore the real world" pants Garnett) and the dead-on "Lady Tennis Player" are quite possibly your reviewer's favourite things here. The latter finds Garnett lustng after the unreachable ("She's so beautiful, the way she strikes the ball") and features the sort of "do do do" chorus that even a truckload of Anadin can't get out of your head. It's begging to be a single, basically.
That INSTANT SPECIES should remain local heroes as their fourth album is released is a travesty, but as ambassadors of the cottage industry approach, they're among th best there currently is. Get your fork into "Meat Pie Argument" and devour. It's about time INSTANT SPECIES started going down well everywhere.
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