Clean Cut Kid - Felt

Rating:

It’s a record packed with fun, an invitation to no longer feel alone.

'Album' of 'the Week'

If there’s one thing the world has in common, above anything else, is that feeling of love. It can be harsh and touch the bottom of the deepest pit of despair possible, or it could soar higher than any moment life can fling in your face - whatever it may be, it’ll be pretty seismic. For all those moments, love and heartache may never have sounded as fuzzed up and wrapped in harmonious ease as ‘Felt’, an album that glints with feverish excitement and playfulness in a way that makes you jump aboard the Clean Cut Kid wagon with such sharpness, that there are knives sitting green in envy.

Dazzling in all the right places, ‘Felt’ flourishes in sparkle-eyed highs. The opening glitches and shakes of ‘Vitamin C’ are akin to a band tapping their way into an electrical current made up of Tom Petty-Americana and rapturous pop gleams, with infectious stormers like ‘Make Believe’, ‘Runaway’ and ‘Leaving You Behind’ aimed squarely at soundtracking the sing-your-heart-out closing moments of love’s ending. It struts and flurries with a glam confidence on ‘We Used To Be In Love’, drives like an 80s roof-top swoon on ‘Stay’ and bounds with a garage-rock passion on ‘Pick Me Up’, gripping from the first note and simply refusing to let you drop out of their technicolored kingdom. At its core, the dynamic voices of Mike and Evelyn Halls make it a record perfect for pulling at heartstrings, and by the time the album’s title track, ‘Brother’ and ‘Evelyn’ ring through - there’s only one destination for love and that’s right at Clean Cut Kid’s door.

What makes ‘Felt’ such a rip-roaring success is the important ingredient that rings throughout. It’s a record packed with fun, an invitation to no longer feel alone and revel in the time we have scattered on this fair planet. Heartache and love can cause some extreme reactions, but Clean Cut Kid will have your back no matter what. Jamie Muir