by Kris Handel
There's No "I" In Spice World is the debut full-length from the Australian jangly indie-pop band Spice World, a record full of spirit and influences both from within its country’s borders and from their neighbors in New Zealand. Traversing a lot of ground, there's some hazy psychedelic influences that linger and stretch out mixed with nervy pop songs that are entangled with sparkle and tension. This four-piece manages to make their own imprint on the musical landscape while paying respects to forbearers. They prove to be unafraid of challenging themselves to great reward laid out within their quirky musical universe. Spice World find a way to use each of its members own distinct vocals to vary the atmosphere and push each other in approach. Textures are hard to anticipate which keeps what unfolds full of an intriguing magnetism.
"Troubles" combines a lo-fi jangle and swaying violin provided by Lyndon Blue akin to early period The Bats mixed with a edgy yet playful attitude of a band like Bitch Prefect. On tracks like this, Spice World show off a great deal of range, combining a simple folkiness with a simmering intensity that magnificently ebbs and flows. "Mountain Pony 20" is a great example of the group’s ability to simultaneously appear playful and cool yet express moments of jittery questioning and dissatisfaction. Julia Suddenly's simple yet powerful drums pound and fill up space as the guitars of Blue and Jonny Burrows quake and brittlely stutter along.
"Useless Feeling" is a sprightly track full of bright yet spiky guitar lines that have a C86 feel to them mixed with an anxious vocal approach that allows the band’s charm to truly strike an emotional nerve. The quartet injects a bit of urgency into the track, highlighting the somewhat youthful expression held within that once again is always captivating. "Friend of Mine" is a tense shuffle as Suddenly's drumming projects an insistence while the guitars skitter around Burrow's biting delivery that gets brightened a bit by the buoyant interjections of Suddenly and Rhian Toddhunter. There is a spiky weight that creates a powerful and driving unease, executed brilliantly in the instrumentation and impactful tempo.
This debut record shows a band that has many tricks up their sleeves and an innate ability to express their wide range of emotions in a package that delivers a mesmerizing jolt no matter what musical road they choose to travel down. There are moments of wistful beauty mixed in with a jumpy tension that never lacks for power, providing a foundation for the the band to unabashedly pull at heartstrings. There’s an ever-present charm in everything that the group is able to put forward, and although there might be moments that wobble, they also spiritedly refuse to surrender to distress. These songs carry an energy that bursts through the speakers and it's a debut that has a great abundance of passion that is readily apparent and should provide excitement for whatever is to come next.