GOLDEN MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS...

They’ve only been together a quarter-century and already Gear are set to release their debut album. OK, so the Ballymena fourpiece were on hiatus for about 20 of those years so that joke is a little unfair.

Anyway, good things come to those who wait, and all that, and fortunately These Are The Only Golden Memories is a very good thing.

From the first bars of opener Walking

Away

Slowly To Nowhere, a soundscape built on subtle feedback and guitar atmospherics before it breaks into a killer riff, you know this is a collection of songs put together in a considered, measured way – kind of what you’d expect from a more mature band such as Gear. Built around the writing partnership of singer Gary Armstrong and guitarist Simon Clarke, with bassist Nigel Aiken and drummer Andy Nicholl holding it together at the back, Gear have obvious nods to the indie bands of their youth such as the Stone Roses and Oasis.

But perhaps a better reference point would be The Verve at their pre-urban Hymns best.

Simon has a knack for building up walls of sound without ever losing clarity. And even more important is his knowing when to pull back and let Gary’s vocals or the rhythm section do the work.

Live favourite Somewhere Man is a case in point. The intricate picking gives way and suddenly the whole dynamic shifts from melancholy to upbeat before setting up that joyously jangly chorus.

Other highpoints include It’s Not The End Of The World, another on which Gary’s often downbeat lyrics seem to be offered hope in an exquisitelyexecuted chord change.

“Is there a day goes by without the rain?” he muses of a hometown and friends changed by time. “It’s not the end of the world... if you stay.”

Later, on Fate Of Glass, he revisits this theme of moving on and reconnecting – appropriate perhaps for a band who have spent the better part of their adult lives doing just that.

The album wraps up with two more fan favourites – the bombastic Crash_burn and Mockingbird (Fine Smoke) – a sprawling epic and a fitting end...

These Are The Only Golden Memories is out next Friday and the guys are hosting a launch party at Voodoo, Belfast, on November 12.