Label: Bad Hotel
Released: 27th November 2020
Will Joseph Cook’s brand of fizzy tropical sunshine indie pop has always been right up our street. We put him on our cover back in The Olden Days of 2017, so you could be forgiven for saying that Dork are, wait for it, his biggest fan. (Never gets old). But the world has changed A Lot since then, and we aren’t just talking about all this *gestures at world on fire*.
So, if ‘Sweet Dreamer’ felt carefree and breezy, then ‘Something To Feel Good About’ sees those cares breezing in through a window someone forgot to shut. Written after a tough time and a period of travelling, it shows at times. There is a sense of someone trying to figure it all out, freely admitting that “I don’t know anyone who’s 21 and knows how to feel”. Whether wanting to go where people go when they feel alone on ‘DOWNDOWNDOWN!’, or admitting that he feels like a driverless car on, erm, ‘Driverless Cars’, this feels like a new WJC vibe.
That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom. Far from it. The opening ‘Be Around Me’ is pure August sunshine in a bottle with a catchy chorus to end all catchy choruses, while ‘She Likes Me’ is loved up and basically skipping down the street. And though some of the shorter songs might feel like a good hook in search of a home at times, there is still a sense that this is someone discovering their own path and working out where they want to go in the end.
