The new album from Versing sounds like something from the Nineties. And to acknowledge that is to both highlight the charms here, and the pitfalls to dodge. Luckily, lots and lots of 10000, out on Friday via Hardly Art, is fresh, and rarely does this band's exploitation of the whole quiet-loud-quiet-template feel anything less than vibrant.
If "Offering" seems a neat updating of forms perfected ages ago by Nirvana and scores of Britpop acts, the propulsive "Tethered" recalls both early R.E.M. and formative Ride tracks. Versing manage to make lots of this sound new again, even as big hunks of the tunes here on 10000 have, obviously, passages that easily ping bits and pieces of a listener's record collection. The crunchy "By Design" looks to, for example, Wire for inspiration, even as "In Mind" briefly blends swatches of The Pixies with bursts of The House of Love. On paper, those comparisons seem borderline-ridiculous, but in execution, the music of Versing successfully updates the kind of guitar-rock that once ruled airwaves on both sides of the Atlantic. If 10000 feels, at times, like a collection of the greatest riffs of the college rock era, Versing at least imbue this stuff with enough enthusiasm that the material feels a bit invigorating still, with the epic "Loving Myself" even venturing into genuine shoegaze territory.
10000 is out on Friday via Hardly Art.
More details on Versing via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Gordon De Los Santos]