New : Milk Teddy - 'Zingers'

Appearances can be deceptive. Based on the cover artwork and the title's perhaps unintentional reference to one of my favourite fast food treats I was expecting this album to be full of the sort of burger rock synonymous with mid 80s Springsteen and Van Halen, the stuff arenas full of dudes jacked up on testosterone and meat hormones could pump their fist to in sleeveless T-shirts. Fortunately it's nothing of the sort and taps into the washed out vibe of shoegaze-era indie crew Pale Saints - I say shoegaze era as the Saints simply got lumped in with the movement because they were on 4AD and stuck a bit of delay pedal on their material but otherwise had little in common with the likes of Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine. 'Zingers' channels the same mellow, reflective vibe found on late 80s indie silverware like House of Love's less acerbic moments and the Saints' killer 'Comforts of Madness' LP, stepping back on the riffs and giving way to a warm, shimmering sound from the era that acted as the bridge between C86 and the fuzz pedal theatrics of the early 90s. This sounds like one of those big jumper 'n' cocoa records that you'd stick on in the early evening as the daylight fades and you dissolve into the comfy chair zone, though it avoids tweeness by some distance and there's a very understated seam of anthemic indie running through the record. You feel that the Teddy could have easily turned the guitars up on all these tracks and given everything that extra crunch but their tunes work much better as subtle, lilting gems of pastoral indie - plus their singer has a really nice voice although in keeping with the rest of the band he doesn't wear it out and only catches the long notes in sublime set-closer 'Come Around'. The band work best when they keep their distance and album highlight 'Going to Sri Lanka' beams in like someone's stereo playing out across the yard and in through your window on a lovely summer evening, a soft-focus sunshower that kinda reminds me of the Housemartins (that might just be because I ended up looping their super goofy video for 'Happy Hour' as part of a feature I was writing on 1986). The title track mixes in some Beach Boys 'woo hoo' vocals and the aptly-titled 'XTC' bears more than a passing resemblance to its namesake (those guys and their misleading song titles!) but none of their influences interrupt the strictly laidback vibe on show and 'Zingers' drifts by as a pleasingly lysergic mix of pastoral pop and soft-focus indie. If you're looking for riff kicks then this won't fit the bill but if you wanna just kick back and feel warm and fluffy for 40 minutes then Milk Teddy have just the record to take you there.

Check out : 'Going to Sri Lanka', the younger cousin of Pale Saints' 'Sight of You'.