ALBUM REVIEW: SHEAFS – A Happy Medium
While SHEAFS might be relative latecomers to the post-punk/new wave revival, their debut album, A Happy Medium, stakes out their own distinctive territory within that sound. Sonically speaking, the Sheffield band’s mix of wiry guitars, sharply punctuated rhythms, and atmospheric keyboards is nothing new, even when compared to their fellow revivalists.
What makes SHEAFS, and A Happy Medium, special is the way the band captures the joys and frustration of being young and cooped up in a small town, they’re bittersweet, angry, thoughtful, and funny, often within the course of the same song.
Singer/lyricist Lawrence Feenstra’s witty, occasionally poignant observations, coupled with his strong (and endearing) Sheffield accent, add to the band’s earnest, angry-young-man appeal. Indeed, SHEAFS are so good at writing anthems for love-lorn underdogs that they almost feel more akin, spiritually at least, to Pulp than to some of their contemporaries.
En Route Distress recalls The Smiths, and the song’s jaunty melancholy is more than a little reminiscent of This Charming Man. Monotonal Living is just as addictive and smart, as it begins with spiky guitars and turns itself inside out with a synth-driven middle section. The boldly romantic Cycles is very nearly as good, while Vacancy is sweet and soaring. A big part of SHEAFS appeal is hearing them pack so many musical and lyrical ideas into songs that rarely pass the three-and-a-half-minute mark, like the wonderfully agile For Now, Concede and Millennial. On the other hand, Losing All Inhibitions, a bittersweet, largely spoken word ballad propelled by chilly drum machines and synths, is a standout because it’s so expansive. A Happy Medium is a remarkably fresh-sounding debut album, with more than enough personality to transcend its retro leanings.
A Happy Medium is OUT NOW!
