– GUERRILLA WARFARE –

I don’t think Squid are messing about on Houseplants, you know. It’d be easy to assume because of the choppy disco-punk back-beat, the kooky vocal delivery and, well, the fact that the song’s about effin’ houseplants that singer/drummer Ollie Judge is having a bit of a laugh here.

But the lyrics are pretty dark. Witness;

“We speak about our days, yeah, we speak about a raise
Everybody bored, we’re just too afraid to say
Houseplants in my future, houseplants to the skies
There’s a rotten sense of pain, fear in your eyes”

You see, for Judge, houseplants (more specifically the purchase and cultivation thereof) appear to be the living embodiment of giving up on one’s youth. There he is, this young aspiring rock star, and all his mates – fresh into the world of office politics and nightlife-eschewing domesticity – are off to B&Q of the weekend.

And he’s severely pissed off.

And I love that about Houseplants. Listen to the last 30 seconds or so of the track. Listen to the way the vocal delivery and the music ramp up in tandem. This guy can get that wound up by a pogonia? Sheer genius.

The Brighton-based quintet are yet to release any details of a forthcoming album so, for now you’ll have to make do with this.

MORE FROM THIS WEEK’S MIX:

SINKANE | LITTLE SIMZ | SWEET JOSEPH | SQUID | MUTUAL BENEFIT

You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –