Two years in, on the heels of a fantastically scuzzy EP,
Lovvers released their first full-length for Wichita Records. The label of
Conor Oberst and
Los Campesinos! may seem like a strange place for a band influenced by hardcore, but luckily Wichita didn’t do much to interfere --
Lovvers’ grit and gusto aren’t toned back at all. Sharing their sound with the stateside lo-fi punk scene (unlawfully dubbed “shitgaze” by some) alongside
No Age and
Wavves, or even sounding like their Brit contemporaries
Supergrass if they had recorded
I Should Coco on a budget tape recorder, the Nottingham four-piece stay true to their roots on OCD Go Go Go Girls. Formerly members of the Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Tera: Tora, bandmates
Shaun Hencher,
Henry Withers, Michael Drake, and Steven Rose take cues from ‘70s punk (notably,
Buzzcocks,
the Germs, and
the Wipers) and update it, mangling it nearly into indecipherability with a brick of distortion. It’s only fitting that the album was recorded (to the max on analog tape as a way around digital distortion) in Portland, OR’s Jackpot! Studio, where
the Exploding Hearts once recorded. The band shares the punk-pop spirit of
the Hearts, along with
the Marked Men and
Jay Reatard, to make results that are loud, sandpapery, hook-laden, and exhilarating. Except for a revised version of the Think EP’s best song, “Human Hair,” which is good but not quite as inspired as the original take, all of the songs are top-notch. On the surface, the blaring guitar and squeaky vocal chirps blur the tunes together into one fuzz-fueled listen, but under the dirt, the melodies are pure gold. ~ Jason Lymangrover