The hotly tipped Worcester four piece returned in Feb to release their highly anticipated second album ‘Happy People’. Is it an album where they come of age or is it just another indie album?
Here’s what we thought. Their debut ‘In Love’ was a hazy affair with nods to Primal Scream and The Who. Those sun drenched psyche elements are still present, particularly on ‘Gen Strange’ where, they have taken cracking work of Tame Impala’s ‘Lonerism’ and pumped it full of funk and pop music basslines.
Immediately following is the former single ‘Lost On You’. Here they combine their indie charms with Disco to create one hell of a floor filler that Noel Gallagher seems destined to search but never find in his solo career.
‘In Love’ featured the odd lyric for people to cling to (‘it’s not about a generation / It’s not about our education’ – Sugarstone) but ‘Happy People’ is littered with them. The title track is tinged with melancholy and has not been put as well since the great scene between Egg and Anna in This Life:
The second single ‘Money’ is a scathing attack on the money orientated folk among us stating ‘Do you need it? / Do you eat it when you’re hungry?’ The inclusion of more meaningful lyrics were a conscious effort according to their interview with the Guardian recently (http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/07/peace-im-a-girl-happy-people) and at TT towers it’s welcomed with open arms.
Rock and indie music needs this kind of resentment and angst lurking in the background again. It needs people like Peace to stand for something once more, otherwise, it will never be more than someone’s vanity project. This is why we loved their live performance on Made In Chelsea. What a fantastic piece of art and juxtaposition. If this was the heady days of guitar music this would have been talked about in the same vein as the Pistols’ boat trip during The Jubilee.
‘Perfect Skin’ is perhaps the most interesting track on the record though. Throughout this album and the first, the influences sneaking through always sound British. Here though, there is more than a hint of Nirvana. The nihilistic lyrics, the guitar solo towards the end are a great homage to Kurt Cobain an co.
What is also great is the way it never feels like a Nirvana rip off, it feels original and fresh but with a nod to one of the greatest bands of all time in the same manner ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ never felt like T-Rex plagiarism. This is not a huge leap forwards for Peace but this is definitely a big stride towards becoming the most important band in the UK today. Musically they have diversified into new styles but without losing the essence of why people fell in love with them first time round.
This autumn they will embark on their biggest UK tour to date. We strongly urge you attend as this will be the tour when things start to go crazy for them.
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