While C86 legends Close Lobsters put out an EP in 2016 (Desire and Signs, reviewed by me here), this week sees the release of the first full-length from the Scottish band in more than three decades. Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols, out on Friday via Last Night From Glasgow, and, in the United States, via Shelflife Records, is the sort of reunion record that makes you less afraid of reunion records. I mean, rarely do I feel like so-and-so band had to get back together, you know? But with the perennially underrated Close Lobsters, the reunion is not only applauded, but a reminder of how vital and energetic this group's brand of indie-rock remains.
Opener "All Compasses Go Wild", itself a dramatic reworking of 2012 single "Steel Love", is brash, confident, and swaggering in the right kind of way. Within seconds even the most casual of fan will feel somewhat thankful that things are progressing in this direction. "Johnnie", a resuscitation of an 1989 demo (released in 2012) called "Head Over Water" not only chimes, but rings loudly. It's a good thing that the hook is a spectacular one, and the kind of thing that sounds a lot like the title cut from Foxheads Stalk This Land (1987). And while this band isn't entirely living in the past, "Bird Free" did make me think of "Got Apprehension" from 1989's Headache Rhetoric.
Still, for all the looking back, "Let The Days Drift Away" is a mid-tempo belter that seems to owe as much to the Faces as it does to, say, any of the band's peers from the C86 cassette. When Andrew Burnett sings, "Meet me...where the sun meets the sea, where the evening dreams", a listener wants to hoist aloft a pint as if this was some Oasis singalong. Now, of course Burnett and crew are loads more astute that Noel and his lot, but there's a very real, very big sound here that I thought, as I listened to this selection, indicated a new direction for the Lobsters. "Under London Skies", that self-mythologizing gem from 2016, gets another run-around here, with the players anchoring this around Burnett's wistful vocals. The number, with previously-released "New York City in Space" and "Now Time", holds up the second, more experimental half of Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols. And while the final stretch of this album seems more expansive and risky, the tunes, like those peppier ones front-loaded on this album, benefit immensely from the good sense of producer John A. Rivers, himself something of a legend.
All throughout Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols, what needs to chime, chimes, and what needs to churn, churns. But through it all, the melodies and hooks, and clever (though cryptic) lyrics re-affirm again and again just how inspiring this band's material is. There's been progression made, and detours taken since 1987, but, thankfully, the Close Lobsters sound like they've never left us. And for those of us who kept the first two albums in heavy rotation, I suppose they never had. Now I've got another one to add in. Which I'll do, and gladly.
Welcome back fellas.
Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols is out on Friday via Last Night From Glasgow, and, in the United States, via Shelflife Records.
More details on Close Lobsters via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Close Lobsters Facebook page]