If your looking for an album jam-packed with tunes and melodies then psst come closer.  young Guv ‘I & II’ is your squeeze.  It’s packed to fuck with melodies that Teenage Fanclub and Evan Dando have been searching for since the ’80s.

Young Guv wraps beautiful pop tunes in some groovy shit baby he also throws in the odd bit of fuzz guitar for good measure but, generally its all about the beautiful melody baby. It’s what he does. this could be an album (sorry albums) full of smash hits if we lived in a just world where songwriters got success on merit) , in fact – since last summer, Guv (a.k.a. Ben Cook) moved to Brooklyn from his Toronto and just wrote,  it must have been the right decision because he just couldn’t stop writing and pulling power-pop beauties out of the ether and recording them one after the other.

It’s like he channelled the Beach Boys and The Beatles and every single drop of Big Star and Kinks melodies ever dusted them with a dash of Psychedelic goodness and a little bit of grit and hey presto you have this near-perfect pop album.  GUV I and GUV II, two full-length albums available only from Run For Cover Records or from GUV himself should come with a melody health warning and I hope I’m doing it justice?

It’s nineteen songs (including two demos) and a little flavour of what’s on offer is ‘Didn’t Even Cry’ and had Noel and Liam heard this back in the day they’d be doing I’m a celebrity rather than carry on with careers. Then to follow it with the twelve-string strum of ‘High On My Mind’ is a stroke of genius. Big chords and a delightful guitar break (it’s not a solo).  ‘Exceptionally Ordinary’ is like early Stone Roses mixed with some 80s indie such as the Icicle Works or Teardrop Explodes but sweeter.

If there is a downside its there is a lot of songs to get through and with every one, a potential summer hit its a lot to take and the fear is you’ll miss one or more.  There is a floor here as I’m not into the post-disco of ‘Caught Looking’ that might be a step too far for me with the soft drum pads and synth stabs that tingle like icicles and the distant dripping with reverb vocals.  In fact, the second half of this experience does go off the boil somewhat with a emo feel to proceedings like the sound and production of ‘Songs about Feeling Insane’ but it’s momentary as we’re back on track for ‘Can I Just Call You’.

In summary if you’re familiar with ‘Ripe 4 Love’ then you’ll be ahead of the loop because this is more of the same just dialled up the quality a shade.  Man, that fella can write a melody. He’s been perfecting this side of his work for almost five years now. If your looking for something different from your punk or rock then this is perfect.  Live a little and check this out – you might just find whatever it is you’re looking for. Innit Guv?

Buy ‘I & II’ Here

Author: Dom Daley