The return of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin with new material has always been a cause for celebration. Yet despite consistently turning out fantastic albums the band has always received minimal fanfare, particularly in the UK. Perhaps this isn’t so surprising, given the time-honoured British indie kids’ pre-disposition to wallow in misery. Maybe we should blame Ian Curtis or Morrissey, but sunshine-power-pop never seems to have made the grade in England. Even the Shins had Natalie Portman to thank for making it into the mainstream. But with US guitar bands making the grade over here in 2010 and sunshine-pop back on the menu maybe SSLYBY will grab some more attention with their third album “Let it Sway”.
The band’s previous desire to keep their recordings in-house has proved to be both a great strength and weakness. 2008’s superb “Pershing” was a pristine slice of summery power-pop, ludicrously underrated but hugely enjoyed by anyone who got hooked by its dazzling melodies. Nonetheless, self-producing that album, by the band’s own admission, drove them to the edge of reason, so for the follow up the four-piece decamped to Wisconsin and enlisted the assistance of Death Cab’s Chris Walla.
Frankly, the change of production hasn’t resulted in a great change in the band’s sound on “Let it Sway”, although the album is certainly rockier than its predecessor. Opener “Back in the Saddle” is trademark SSLYBY, the soft guitar melody and almost soporific vocal delivery breaking out into the sort of highway-cruising, wind-in-the-hair anthem that the band has made their own. Together with “Sink/Let it Sway” another fizzing, riff-led power-pop track, this certainly rates as the most boisterously catchy start to any of the band’s albums. But Yeltsin, like the Shins, have always been hard to pigeonhole and their songwriting rarely takes the route of least resistance. “In Pairs” is typical of that tendency with a repetitive staccato, chugging melody bursting out into a fist pumping conclusion. “Everlyn” is simply gorgeous, its layered melodies washing over your ears like the sweetest aural candy. “Stuart Gets Lost Dans Le Metro”, meanwhile, shows the bands balladeering side at its beautiful best. Unlike “Pershing” however, the softer side of the band is less dominant across these 12 songs, and “All Hail Dracula” and “Critical Drain” up the wattage again, the former a ’90s style grunge-ish rocker and the latter a catchy-as-hell guitar-driven stormer.
If ever an indie band had flitted around the edges of success without ever truly making it into the limelight, SSLYBY is probably that band. Unquestionably a band built to make it big in their homeland, they remain an outfit with enough appeal to attract lovers of highly melodic, smart, power-pop. While “Let it Sway” probably doesn’t hang together quite as well as its predecessor, with bigger swings in style and songwriting, there remain enough jewels on the album to continue to bring the band to a wider audience. And for such a likeable unassuming bunch, that can only be a good thing.
7.5/10
“Let it Sway” is released on 16 August.
