Savings And Loan is the first album from Cardiff punks Bedford Falls, and it manages something I thought would be impossible – it revives my faith in the potential of punk rock songwriting as a vehicle for genuine emotion.
Please note the use of the word “genuine”. We currently have a bloated edifice of a scene that claims to be the OMG most emotionally charged sub-division of rock music EVAR, and while I can’t criticise its adherents for their naivete (as I was just as clueless in my day) I can criticise the music with great ease: to put it simply, most modern bands who describe their lyrical content as “emotional” should really be saying “histrionic and whiny”.
Enter Bedford Falls. The packaging of Savings And Loan – carefully designed to evoke the vinyl aretfacts of a bygone age, much like the fictional town the band named themselves after – has a subtitle that reads “More sad songs about girls”. And that’s exactly what you get.
The big difference is the honesty. Bedford Falls write songs that speak in simple language about events and relationships that anyone can relate to through personal experience. There’s no grandiose chest-thumping about weeping over a suicide’s gravestone at midnight here. Instead, Savings And Loan catalogues more simple adorations and disappointments, the confusions and restlessnesses of modern youth – emotions which, contrary to what you believe at the time, have remained essentially unchanged for decades.
The lyrical simplicity is matched by the straight-forward alt-rock-punk of the music itself. Energetic, robust and simple, it recalls the indie rock of the early nineties as much as the punk bands that followed it; Bedford Falls have the same ear for memorable melody that Bob Mould perfected in Sugar, the effortless timing and vocal harmonies that Cooper made their own, and the storytelling suss of The Lemonheads or Alkaline Trio.
And how much of a relief from the tabloid sensationalism of MTV to hear of hearts “as tattered and torn” as the unread paperbacks on a girlfriend’s floor, or the self-deprecating break-up confession of “Anodyne”, or the small-town angst and restlessness of “A Brand New Way To Drown” - a song that will speak to anyone who ever wanted to be somewhere other than where they were. Bedford Falls have rediscovered the integrity that punk rock mislaid.
Savings And Loan isn’t perfect, but it’s the sort of album whose imperfections actually make it more endearing in some respects. The production is low-budget and minimal, but that fits well with the honesty of the songs, just like the loose timings and slightly ragged harmonies – Bedford Falls are a real band of real people, singing about real things. I’d forgotten how rare that is. I’ll bet you have, too – so remind yourself.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Bedford Falls, indie, post-hardcore, punk, Savings And Loan
