REGARDS’ previous single ‘After Many A Summer’ (18 months back) floated my boat in a big way. While too many of the all haircut and no substance NME types were wetting themselves over the Snow Patrol derivatives (God, what a concept), this Stafford-Liverpool alliance were kicking out the provincial jams with the kind of tough, emotionally-charged guitar sounds that can’t fail to make you feel exhilarated and alive.
New release ‘The Belltower’ proves there’s a damn sight more where that incendiary little blighter came from. Featuring five sterling new tracks (well, OK, the brief hymnal ‘My Inertia’ briefly reprises the title track) it adds up to an impressive flexing of the creative muscle.
Opener ‘Bring You to Life’ shifts between bitten-off, Wire-like riffing and dreamier, Chameleons-style sections and rushes gloriously on its’ run. Matthew Tyzack’s vocals have a scuffed urgency which immediately sets him apart from the falsetto merchants while the band’s raw, melodic execution is right on the money.
Deeper into the EP, the chugging ‘Fade Out’ is a dark song searching for escape and rebirth (“we worked hard in the winter so we could leave in the spring”) which uncoils beautifully as the sun-kissed chorus kicks in. The dark horse is surely ‘To Live Alone’ where a simple drum loop and drifting guitars bring on a Velvets-esque atmosphere, although the troubled lyrics (“you said you felt the pain go away/ you said you finally felt safe”) are numb and broken and only further accentuated by Tyzack’s sleepy delivery.
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‘Belltower’ itself is the key track, however. While the lyrics deal with the horrors of self-harm and premature demise (“My inertia leads to desperation when I see you hollow out your arm”), the music itself is confident, surging and anthemic. It’s moving, very real and without date the best thing they’ve done to date.
On a day when I’m again feeling underwhelmed by hotly-tipped under-achievers operating in a similar sonic arena (in this case, Jenner’s Field), I again urge you to check Regards out instead. Intelligent, anthemic guitar pop always has its’ place and its’ supposedly shaky future is in very safe hands here.
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