I really don't know how I let this one slip past me. While I can vaguely recall a friend or two raving about Permo, the debut full-length from Spinning Coin, back in 2017, I somehow never sought out the album then. The record, out on Domino via Stephen Pastel's Geographic imprint, is overflowing with the sort of music that's the best kind of indie-pop.
One could listen to something here on this uniformly-superb album, something like "Tin", for example, and hear faint echoes of bands like Pavement, without first remembering that Pavement was likely heavily influenced by earlier indie acts from across the pond, like The Wedding Present and The Vaselines. "Metronome River" swirls and sways with faint folk-rock hooks darting about, even as "Floating with You" adds a touch of Yanks Jonathan Richman and Jad Fair to the mix. And while one could also make a case that "Raining on Hope Street" and "Money is a Drug" sound like Go-Betweens numbers composed by Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, respectively, it would be a fool's game to go through Permo looking for signs as to what is likely in the band's probably-excellent record collection. No, the tunes here on this debut full-length stand on their own as examples of exactly how indie-pop can be done, and done in such a way that hearing songs like this can revive one's soul, or buttress it as the storms of life rage outside.
At their best here on Permo, like on the deliciously happy/sad "Sleepless", or the purposeful "Starry Eyes", Spinning Coin seem to be corralling a whole lot of stuff, harnessing the pieces that seem to be flying away around them. The effect on so many tunes here is, as another has written somewhere, as if the band doesn't have a care in the world. And like Built to Spill or The Feelies before them, Spinning Coin have that rare gift of being able to let the the music sort of fall into place, even if a listener hears something a good deal more ramshackle unwinding. The players here -- Sean Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Cal Donnelly (bass), Jack Mellin (vocals, guitar), Rachel Taylor (vocals, keyboards) and Chris White (drums) -- have a marvelous sort of intuition between them. It's the kind of thing that lets them, at times, sound a tiny bit like The Delgados, and at others like The Velvet Underground, and at others like The Pastels. With lots of this recorded by the legendary Edwyn Collins, one might even draw into that list of comparison points Orange Juice. Sure, Spinning Coin owe lots to earlier Scottish indie pioneers like those guys, but they're doing this music with enough of their own style leading the way that one cannot but help to marvel at how breathtakingly refreshing this sort of thing can be, especially with the lyrics throughout Permo indicating that this act's whole ethos is also on point. Spinning Coin are, on this debut, doing everything exactly right, and reminding the jaded of the power of indie-pop.
Look for a new single from Spinning Coin later this month. Permo is out now via Domino and the Geographic imprint from Stephen Pastel.
More details on Spinning Coin via the band's official website, or via their official Facebook page.
[Photo: Brian Sweeney]