Glorious power-pop anthems on the debut EP from Newcastle’s ‘melodic punks,’ Wild Spelks.
Release Date: 21st June 2024
Label: Self Release
Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital / Cassette
Formed in Newcastle in 2020 and now a central feature of the booming Toon punk scene, Wild Spelks is the vehicle for the thoughts and joyous power pop of songwriter, musician and producer, Jonathon Sabiston. A House Full Of Strangers is the debut Wild Spelks EP (they’ve already got a string of standalone singles to their name) and Jonathon recorded, mixed and mastered the tracks at home in his Newcastle flat: “I’m lucky enough to have a spare room in my flat in Newcastle,” Jonathan explains, “which my wife has lovingly let me turn into a delicately balanced sh*t-heap of guitars and speakers. It’s in there where I write and record 90% of any Wild Spelks record. The rest is almost always in the hands of Newcastle producer and engineer, Chris McManus, where he takes his place on the desk, we discuss snare sounds over coffee and then generally use the first take of any drums we record and go home. Thank you, Chris.”
By the way, if you’re wondering about where the band gets its name from, Jonathon has an explanation for that, too: it comes from the pangs of anxiety that dig into him, like a splinter, whenever he is feeling panicked. ‘Spelks’ is Newcastle dialect for ‘splinters’ and the ‘wild’ prefix defines the out-of-the-blue timing of the anxiety attacks. It’s a well-chosen name, judging by the material on offer here; anxiety, panic, distress and disorientation are common themes throughout the five songs that constitute A House Full of Strangers, but the good news is that all those emotions are packaged in a wrapper that I can best describe as ‘Glorious power pop.’ It’s only when you give the lyrics a good listen that the mask slips.
Opening track, They’re Gonna Get You, sets the scene for what’s to come. Discordant guitars herald a solid, immediate rhythm. It’s tight and it’s tuneful – if you’re looking for comparisons, it’s more late-period Clash than early Sex Pistols. Jonathan says an awful lot within his 3:43 of allocated time and, with lyrics like “Remember me at 23, When I had good thoughts in my head? I’d fall back onto my bed and fall asleep,” he reconciles his current state of turmoil with the contentment that he once enjoyed.
It’s jangling guitars and a crisp drumbeat that provide the foundations for Help Myself, the later of the two singles to be taken from the EP. It’s quite poppy, with a compulsive, foot-tapping drive to it and, typically, Jonathon’s vocals covey a joy that isn’t reflected in the confusion and dysfunction of the lyrics. Those lyrics reflect upon the effects of substance abuse – both upon the user and those to whom he/she is close – and the line “This house is full of strangers, with no hopes of getting old, the paraffin-esque burning stinging nose and blood-stained clothes” provides the EP with its bleak title.
Panic and, possibly, substance abuse, also provide the subject matter for Happy & Healthy, a slice of gritty, driving punk, laced with guitars that sound genuinely down ‘n’ dirty and the sense of disorientation continues with Take It From A Friend, the EP’s lead single. It’s another chunk of punchy power pop and, this time, Jonathon’s lyrics seem to offer a glimmer of hope, as the confusion expressed in the song’s opening lines: “Talk of good sense in past tense, dizzy from trying to make sense of the world around you…” is counteracted by the determination of the song’s chorus: “We’ll cauterize our wounds, as we clean out your room – take it from a friend: we will try again.”
But, it’s with the EP’s closing track, the glorious Getting the Band Back Together Again, that Wild Spelks really show the world what they can do. For once, the joy is unrestrained; the music is just as tight and punchy as anything else on the EP but this time, the lyrics are optimistic and self-effacing, and lines like: “We’ll head up the staircase, drum shells crack the door frames; warm beers and makeshift ashtrays; the neighbours always complain” and “We drank too much, we didn’t care; fluorescent lights on broken chairs. Damaged our ears and spent our wage on old guitars to play onstage” tell a story that will be all-too-familiar to anyone who has tried to get a nascent band off the ground. It’s a show-stopper of a song that I well imaging being played for a long time to come, even when Wild Skelps are nothing more than a memory.
Watch the official video to Getting The Band Back Together – the EP’s glorious closing track – here:
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Categories: EP Review
