TOWARDS the end of Scouse indie-jesters The Wombats’ second album, frontman Matthew Murphy honks: “I’m not trying to be smart”.
With his lyrics namechecking Freudian slips, whisky and caviar sessions and 18th century memoirs, he could have fooled us. Unfortunately, any imagination seems to have been spent on the words by the time The Wombats got round to the music.
For the majority of This Modern Glitch, particularly on Girls/Fast Cars, Walking Disasters and Techno Fan, they’re a slightly more sophisticated Scouting For Girls, assuming the words ‘sophisticated’ and ‘Scouting For Girls’ can ever be used within the same time-zone.
Tokyo, Jump Into The Fog and the Soft Cell-style tattered torch song Anti-D at least show Murphy and his band can refine their sound when it suits them, but This Modern Glitch whiffs of blue WKD-fuelled rows in halls of residence and an urge to get it all out of the way before anybody starts asking awkward questions.
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