ALBUM REVIEW: Coves - 'Soft Friday'

In a year in which ‘psychedelic revival’ seems to be on the tongue of every music journalist around, I can’t help feeling that something is missing. We have the krautrock elements in TOY, the dreamy, shoegaze influenced DIIV and the more simplistic psychedelic guitar bliss of London outfit Temples. Yet something doesn’t quite feel right. The ‘revival’ is lacking a band with a more garage-fuzz based sound. A band that doesn’t so much create a ‘wall of noise’ but a band that is lead forward by simple but sharp drums, a distorted guitar sound and haunting tales of melancholy. That band is Coves, and the debut album is called Soft Friday.

The opening track ‘Fall Out Of Love’ is a perfect summary of the album in many ways. Vocalist Beck Wood croons tales of despair and desperation over an equally mournful sounding guitar. The track is heavyhearted but with a certain elegance. Explosive drum solos after each chorus give the song a real sense of structure and it makes for a perfect opener.

The structures of the songs are something that I particularly like in this record. The choruses are somewhat repetitive in the best possible way, elements of 90’s shoegaze outfit Slowdive can be heard as Beck mourns ‘my heart stops beating for you’ multiple times before a swirling guitar melody leads the single ‘Beatings’ into a typical combination of haunting delay, rhythmic, well-paced drumming and bittersweet songwriting (think the fragility of Daughter with elements of Tame Impala and even The Black Keys on some tracks) something that Coves rely on throughout the record. Another common theme in ‘Soft Friday’ is that Coves love to take the listener by surprise. It seems that whenever you think the song is in danger of becoming repetitive in such a way that doesn’t act as a blissful nod to the shoegaze scene in f 1990’s England, guitarist John Ridgard takes the track somewhere else. The great thing is that Ridgard doesn’t rely on an abundance of pedals to do so. Chords that can previously be heard being picked softly will suddenly become the driving force in the song.

The one criticism I can find of Soft Friday is its lack of single contenders. The record acts as a collective nod to an interesting range of influences. With elements of blues rock, psychedelic rock, and shoegaze all prominent. It’s a record that stands out as one. Take a track away and listen to it alone and it’s very different. It seems each track is an element of something bigger.

In summary, Soft Friday is a record that should certainly listened to by anyone in search of a refreshing, alternative take on the psychedelic and garage fuzz sound and interesting song structures. Wood’s tales of loss and Ridgard’s ability to make his guitar sound just as broken and mournful makes for an interesting record for sure. It’s a really excellent debut from a band who look as if they have plenty to offer, just don’t expect to be blown away track-by-track.

Marty Hill