JAM THE ALBUM WHILE YOU READ
"GREAT ADD YOU SAUCY MINX" - BEN
ANORAK PATCH
BY COUSIN SAM
APRIL 30TH, 2023
Though their name may indicate a certain affinity to the fey and iconic indie pop songs and bands of long defunct, and much beloved, Sarah Records, you’d be mistaken. All content herein is Twee free. And bored you will NOT be with this EP. Six songs (discounting the requisite intro snippet) will have you wondering just where in the musical world these four Colchester (UK) kids stake their claim.
Youth breeds ideas. Energy. Experimentalism. And that’s what we have here. No track like the other. Each unique enough to keep the ears attuned, even if the squint of an eye and the cock of the head ponders the varied musical transitions. So, let’s take a moment and offer up a few wee one liners for each song, shall we?.
“Cousin Sam” – Doom laden funeral dirge slowcoring its way along before a mid-song guitar crunch brings the loud, and the drums the bombast.
“Paris Will Be Paid For” – Time signature tomfoolery with wonky wonderment.
“Irate” – Angular and angsty and the first 10 seconds echoes exactly Sugarplastic’s “Another Myself”. (I doubt Anorak Patch has ever heard of Ben Eshbach and Sugarplastic. But I wracked my brain to pull from its depths a riff released in 1996 from an obscure band. Go listen to both. Am I wrong?)
“Delilah” – When the subtle synth keys and kick-snare beats are brought, full fandom ensues. (This would have been my choice for a single release.)
“Blue Jeans” – Yes, the Cure’s exotic and middle eastern “Killing an Arab” fingerprints are all over this one.
“Polly Filler” – That slow talk-sing art rock Sleaford Mods Suspiria psych drug trip with colors and swirls and goth doom via Grace Slick’s “White Rabbit”.
On first listen I didn’t know what to make of Anorak Patch’s By Cousin Sam (EP). I didn’t exactly love it. By the fourth listen? I absolutely did.
- Trent Ryan Smith