Soaked in a delightfully catchy jangle-pop aesthetic, Twerps’ second release, Range Anxiety, is brilliant in the way that it manages to fuse a number of musical eccentricities while still remaining a very smooth, calm listen. As the album jumps between bright, indie pop-influenced riffs, it downplays the otherwise dreamy, happy and chirpy feel of the album by adding droning lo-fi bummer rock vocals in order to equalise the mix. The ultimate cleverness of Range Anxiety is that Twerps have managed to incorporate these two somewhat opposing concepts in order to create an album both calm and collected, whilst experimenting with some strange instrumentals and slightly unconventional song-writing techniques.
Range Anxiety does well to texture the music in unexpected ways through the use of odd sounds, instruments and production techniques. Clever use of toy organs, accordions, riffs that cut off and repeat so crisply they sound like they’ve been recorded through a tape player and many more examples are riddled throughout the tracks, along with a boy/girl vocal layering dynamic throwing shades of ’70s/’80s pop music into the mix. The addition of the strange instruments combined with a new take on an aged sound are probably what throws Range Anxiety from being just another mere (albeit quite good) indie album, putting it into the realm of jangle pop. The elements are subtle, but just enough to change the emphasis of the music in a positive way.
However, the band chooses to take a slightly unconventional approach to the song writing with some tracks being cut short before they evolve into something memorable. What you get with Range Anxiety is a series of interesting ideas, blasted out in rapid succession. It’s a bit off your conventional indie-pop album and might be a bit of a weird flavour for the traditionalists, but for anyone who likes their music a little bit different, this should be right up your alley.
BY THOMAS BRAND
