Throughout the '90s, British noise pop group
Boyracer was one of the more prolific and electrifying bands in the indie scene. They made records with esteemed labels like Sarah and Slumberland and excelled at churning out 7"s stuffed with short songs that were equal parts abrasive and melodic. Though the band continued releasing music both new and archival,
Boyracer's prolific '90s output slowed somewhat over the course of the next two decades. Their 13th album,
On a Promise, comes 12 years after their last full-length of all-new material, and continues the group's distinctive style of nervous, noisy, and hook-heavy pop songs as if only a day had passed. Main singer/songwriter/guitarist
Stewart Anderson is joined by a host of familiar
Boyracer accomplices as well as newest bandmate
Christina Riley for 17 tracks that fly by at an average running time of just over two minutes. Songs like jumpy opener "Hit and Miss," "Hidden Memories," and the poppy, trumpet-adorned "Girl in a Soul Band" rely on elements
Anderson has always employed: fuzzy bass lines, zippy tempos, and unexpected melodic shifts that move jaggedly between dissonance and resolution. The album stacks its moments of jittery, feedback-laden indie pop and opens up for brief respites with gentle tunes like the spare "Positively Golden" and acoustic guitar-driven songs like "Entitled" and "Bored and Lonely." When a band as storied as
Boyracer returns from a long absence, there might be some temptation to simply turn up the nostalgia factor and relive the faded memories of their earlier days. While the group doesn't reach for a dramatically different style than they're known for,
On a Promise isn't by-the-numbers indie pop throwback by any means.
Anderson recounts a more adult experience of a hungover morning on tour with "Chiseled by Hertz," telling a story of walking groggily around his old stomping grounds and seeing the city slightly differently with the passage of time. Themes of adult life are never heavy-handed, but nods to toiling at menial jobs ("Bunk Off Work Today") and different perspectives on aging ("The Rest of Yr Life") pop up subtly throughout. More than any overt personal statements,
On a Promise achieves the balance of explosive excitement and unpolished pop beauty that
Boyracer first delivered with their earliest singles. It's a more nuanced, wiser, and triumphantly strong chapter from a band three decades into finding new angles on their unique brand of conflicted pop.