A band who sound absolutely nothing like what you think they'll sound like if you look at that picture up there, London's Tugboat Captain are an oddly charming link in a style of music that goes back to The Auteurs and David Devant & His Spirit Wife. The four-piece's newest album, Rut, is out now via Double A-Side Records, and it is full of the kind of tunes that are right up my alley. Fashionably out-of-step with contemporary indie, I think, Tugboat Captain's material is altogether elegant and pleasing.
"If Tomorrow's Like Today" marries a jaunty piano-hook with vocals like something Luke Haines could have sung in an earlier decade, while "Come Dig Me Out" is more of that king of thing, mixed with a Jarvis Cocker-like sense of humor. The lyrics have a self-deprecating wit about them, and this is clearly one of the real highlights here, even as "No Plans (For This Year)" is even better. This one coasts forward on a Bowie-style melody even as the backing music veers into real Britpop territory. Similarly, as closer "Day to Day" moves forward on the back of a "I'm not designed for hope" refrain, a listener can take a weird sort of inspiration from this kind of DIY art rock.
Alexander Sokolow sings to these ears a lot like a young Luke Haines without the misanthropy. He also sounds like others too, such that the band's music may also remind an astute listener of acts like Pelvis and The Divine Comedy too. But all that being said, Tugboat Captain make a unique brand of chamber rock that owes huge debts to the riskier artists of the Britpop years, and even the bolder ones of the glam-rock era before that. The tunes on Rut all have an elegance that is more welcoming than offputting, and the juxtapostion of the arrangements with the lyrics and vocals is an affecting one. The entire enterprise is a highly recommended one, and Rut one of the autumn's best recent releases.
Rut is out now via Double A-Side Records.
More details on Tugboat Captain via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Double A-Side Records]