By Jay Mukherjee
Full disclosure: The Bats are one of my all-time favorite bands. I can count on one hand bands that are up to their level in my estimation. So, please know where I come from while reading this review. I've been a huge fan ever since I first bought The Law of Things in 1989 and heard the sounds of their bouncy, jangly brand of Flying Nun pop. I've also seen them quite a few times live over the years ("live", remember that? Sigh), with the highlight being The Noisyland Tour of 1993, where The Bats played with the fantastic Jean-Paul Sartre Experience and Straitjacket Fits. Ah, good memories.
After a career of 38 (!) years, the four members -- Paul Kean (bass), Malcolm Grant (drums), Robert Scott (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards), and Kaye Woodward (lead guitar, vocals) -- are back with Foothills, their first album since The Deep Set in 2017. Generally, The Bats' music can be categorized into two "buckets" for me: the first being numbers which are wistful, nostalgic, and melancholy, while the second bucket contains the songs that could potentially get you a speeding ticket if you're cranking them in the car (full credit to the incredibly underrated rhythm section of Kean and Grant for the power on those). The selections on Foothills fit this same template.
The first song, "Trade in Silence", starts off the album and falls into the wistful, emotional section. "What you have to say/I'm still in doubt/And sometime later/Process the information/I'm struck by reason/Swayed by your tone", Scott laments. A pretty way to start the album. Track 3, Scott sings, "Beneath the Visor/The sun comes through/I am none the wiser/With you" ...and... "When we are together/In the morning light/I can be forever in your night". These are all beautiful lyrics sung over a gentle, breezy strum. Track 4, "Scrolling", reminded me a lot of another favorite band of mine, Yo La Tengo. The final selection on Foothills, "Electric Sea View", has an ethereal feel similar to that of the final song, "Not So Good", on their last album. When it comes to the "speeding ticket" songs, there are quite a few. "Warwick" and the wonderful "Field of Vision" are throwbacks that would have fit in perfectly well on the aforementioned The Law of Things. But, the highlight of the album for me is "Another Door", one of the best songs they have written in a prolific career full of great songs. It's that rare song that splits the melancholy with their upbeat songs. The lyric, "We've all left this place/Nothing seems to fit/Now we've left the race ... behind" perfectly encapsulates the post-Covid world. Not sure what or who the song was written for or about, but it pretty much sums things up as they are for me. The music starts slowly then builds and builds, until the final guitar solo explodes. Just perfect.
And while I am admittedly biased, this album is a great effort from a band that is continuously improving with age. I never promised an objective review, nor would I be capable of giving one, but this site is meant to celebrate music that the reviewers can get enthusiastic about it, so it should be okay for me to rave about The Bats' newest record.
Foothills is is out today via Flying Nun Records.
More details on The Bats via the official website.