Melbourne band Twerps did release an EP back in 2009, but it’s nothing compared to this, their debut album. Jumping past the band’s clear love for Flying Nun records (check The Clean for instance), the group have a knack for scuffing-up their jangled guitars with a downbeat attitude and unassuming delivery.

Frontman Marty Frawley has a waning vocal that really couldn’t give a fuck where it wanders. It creates the heart of the record, where the melodies are faint but run deep. The fact the band back it up with such clarity – in fact their clear, treble-some guitars will have Real Estate taking notes – is why this record is such a special debut.

Peculiar utilises a piano amid the picked electrics, Frawley rambling atop the keys and guitars. The chords fall and Frawley is left exposed with what feels like a spew of regret. On Anything New Frawley starts to perk up. “You give me the shits, and you bore me to bits,” he calls across the run of guitars and steady backbeat. Members of Eddy Current Supression turn up for the decadent chorus-line of Who Are You? a song that has the soft croon and guitar-glistening riffs of Velvet Underground’s Loaded.

And just when you think you have a hold of the record they throw in the excellent Bring Me Down. This is old school Lee Hazlewood, Frawley talking his way past an angelic set of female harmonies. His voice is up-close with a gravelled tone; the sole acoustic guitar blindly strums onwards.

Twerps have made a guitar album that has soul, in that you believe every word. And on hearing tracks like the soaring and melodic Through the Day, you start to wonder if Australia has just produced one of its finest bands for a very long time.

-Dave Taylor-