On the heels of two solid 7” releases showcasing an entertaining, catchy approach to post-punk, Melbourne five-piece Delivery evolve their sound and vibe with debut album Forever Giving Handshakes. Channeling wiry post-punk as much as psyched-out garage and hooky power-pop, Handshakes rides a wavering line between tightly-wound momentum and raucous partying, the result a collection of twelve nervy, shout-along earworms.
On paper, there’s too much going on here. Three guitars. Synths. Four vocalists, multiple songwriters. But Delivery is a band with surprising restraint. Driven forward by the nimble, propulsive rhythm section, the guitars and synths stay focused and direct, finding moments for clever harmonies and lead lines while leaving lots of room for the vocals to do their thing. The vocals are so good, ranging from nursery rhyme chant to wry bellow to singsong slacker. Rather than feeling disjointed, Delivery’s stylistic diversity gives the record a distinct atmosphere and narrative through-line, individual voices coming in and out and joining together for cathartic instrumental breaks and giant choruses.
The best songs on Forever Giving Handshakes pull all the contrasting pieces together, as in opener “Picture This”—a tense, insistent build with chanted unison vocals that extends into harmonized riffing, waiting until the 2:40 mark to explode into a massive instrumental bridge—or “No Balconies,” where the disjointed groove of the verses opens up into a riotous call-and-response chorus. Lead single “Baader Meinhof” is the real show-stealer here, a fist-pumping rock ’n’ roll machine fueled by an undeniable synth riff and layers of guitar, with a hook that will have audiences fighting to climb onstage and shout along.
Drawing on some clear influences from the back catalogs of seminal labels like Goner, Aarght, In The Red, and Castle Face, Delivery have assembled a sound that feels like an old refrain leading into a new verse, an evolution that puts them in a league with recent standouts like Spiritual Cramp, Spread Joy, and Feel It labelmates Sweeping Promises. Far from sounding like their record collections, though, Forever Giving Handshakes’ charm and energy comes from Delivery’s apparent disinterest in adhering to formula—their willingness to take compositional risks, let the songs breathe, and have fun all major indicators that this is a band with more than one great album in them. - Mark Wadley