Florida Water Blues

In the summer I wasn’t sure Florida Water Blues matched blame the clown, Twisted Teens’ first album of the year. Two months on, the earlier record is still a little more immediate, but this one might have more staying power.

The dominant feeling is overload. Take a typical song and almost every component is pushing into the red. Caspian Hollywell plays most of the instruments, but you notice his deep, gnarly vocals and scratchy riffs first. Behind them are a drum machine and RJ Santos’s pedal steel. The net result is equal parts garage punk and country. Within that template, it’s about as close as they could come to a comedown record. The beating sun of blame the clown is setting (the closer is, helpfully, called ‘Sun Go Down’).

The melodies are strong throughout, which is all the more impressive given how much they release: a third album, The Holy Cross Tigers, is due from Sub Pop on 6 November. Lyrically, it’s great, and the wry lines come faster than you can catch them. The title track opens with “had about a hundred beers of solitude”. Simon Price has reworked a Dolly Parton quip for the Ramones: ‘it takes a lot of brains to sound this dumb’. I’d extend the compliment to Hollywell and Santos.