The Liverpool band Circa Waves make bright, peppy indie-pop. At their best, like on their last album, the group offer up music that seems like an updating of the sort of thing that, say, The Killers first showed up peddling. That the music of Circa Waves seems more energetic is to be applauded, even if the band is dividing their newest release, Sad Happy, into two separate releases. While I'll be back in a few months to review the sad side, today I'm here to crank out some thoughts on the happy half of this new Circa Waves record.
"Be My Drug" pulses and percolates with a whole lot of verve, while "Jacqueline", the opener here, is equally energetic. And while Happy is the happy half of Sad Happy, there's a real mournfulness to stuff like "Things We Knew Last Night", an elegant bit of business, and a superb tune anchoring the downright lush "Love You More", one of this lot's best compositions to date. Elsewhere, "Wasted on You" revs things up dramatically, adding a lot of pep to what's a fairly consistent half of an album. Now, let's see what the sad side of Sad Happy brings us in a few months.
Happy from Sad Happy is out today.
More details on Circa Waves via the band's official website, or via their official Facebook page.
[Photo: Uncredited promotional picture]