It’s hard to be a post-punk band from the UK with sermon-screamed vocals and gritty, angular guitars and not, to my North American ears, just sound like a diluted IDLES. While vocalist Charlie Drinkwater has a different vocal style than IDLES Joe Talbot, his bravado and baritone are quite close. Lyrics about cartoons, the strangeness of life, synthy dance-punk madness…I don’t think the band is looking to be an IDLES clone, but it’s tough to separate them. At least that’s what I felt in the first three tracks.
Still, the front end of this album is a good time after a few listens. The opening stretch moves with a loose, rattling swagger, like a night bus taking corners too fast. A guitar line goes sideways into something strange, and the whole thing tilts like a carnival ride. « Ultraviolet Blue » brings more of an atmospheric jaunt, and a I love that trudging bass. For a few songs, the band remember they are dangerous, and the fog the record trades in feels like atmosphere under the dancey post-punk. Then comes the sixth song, which for me, is where it all falls apart a bit. The band call this a record about confusion, and from here the confusion starts to feel like the band’s own. « Into Shape » arrives half-formed and gets waved through anyway. Riffs repeat themselves after their punch has died in the corner.
For me, TV Priest’s Cartoons is a diluted pour of a well-worn spirit. It’s enjoyable while the neon holds, but it can’t keep the current running to the end.
