No bad apples on Peach Pit’s latest
Infectious melodies, lyrics resonate on breakup album You And Your Friends
It may be too early to call but what the hell, we’re in the midst of a pandemic; Peach Pit has produced the breakup album of the year.
In fact, You And Your Friends — the title accurately identifying the source of all post-breakup scourge — might just stand up as breakout album of the year once this cursed spin around the sun reaches its merciful conclusion.
Building on their acclaimed debut, 2017’s Being So Normal, the Vancouver-based four-piece has smoothed out the rough patches in their fuzzy pop/surf rock sound. With harmonies that immediately grab your attention, Peach Pit’s followup hints at the Beatles with lovestruck lyrics and tender melodies. Although rather than mop tops, better call them flop tops.
And while heartache is a bitter sting, in these capable hands the ends justify the painful means. Oh, if only every busted relationship produced such beautiful results.
Low strumming is the first sound on Feelin’ Low (F*ckboy Blues) — interesting fake fact, also the name of a Beatles tune left on Abbey Road’s cutting room floor — and it paves a gentle path for Christopher Vanderkooy’s noodling guitar. Blending rock and pop elements, the opener is a sample-platter appetizer for everything to come.
Black Licorice is one of the album’s standouts. Our protagonist’s problem and the all-toocommon solution appear in the opening line: “If you don’t even want to say my name anymore that’s fine, ’cause I’m so wasted I don’t mind.”
Of course, every lyric is now filtered through a COVID -19 prism. The song’s sentiment of being black licorice, adored by none, tolerated by only the most undiscerning taste buds, left out in the cold by all the people you know, is all too relatable for those in lonely quarantine.
Neil Smith’s vocals are on full display in Figure 8, a lover’s lament through memories of figure skate-cinching, before Puppy Grin ups the tempo on the album’s deepest foray into sonic pop.
Brian’s Movie is a gentle head-bobber with a smile-inducing chorus, while Camila I’m at Home tugs at our battered hearts with the line “Camilla I’m at home alone just staring at my phone for you to write, I’m laying singled in my bed just stoned out of my head this Friday night.” Amen there pal.
Second Life with Emily and Live at the Swamp both offer up-tempo pop leading into You And Your Friends’ choicest cut, Shampoo Bottles. Easily the best tune containing a shampoo bottle reference since Adam Sandler’s At A Medium Pace, it details a lost lover’s left-behind items weeks after the fact, lulling the listener into dreamy reminiscence before jamming back to the reality of “leaving you in radio silence, though I’d love to catch a pass.”
Then our protagonist takes us to the streets. The line “I’ve been seeing your red Corolla parked out on the corner there, if it were yours there’d be some hippie bullshit hanging from the rear-view mirror” is such a spot-on example of art imitating life it gives us the chills.
Bon Iver-inspired ditty Thursday and toned-down Your Teeth follow, pulling back on the reins before closer You And Your Friends serves up pure pop with a danceable groove. It also strikes at the heart of this messy matter: “Come on let me hear it, everyone’s a villain baby save for you and your friends, I’ll be in division, she’s freezing in the kitchen, won’t you let me be the best one that you know? But you won’t.”
This is the good stuff, folks. Ganja references and infectious melodies underscore the entire experience without a single bad apple in the bunch, and it’s unfortunate the album won’t receive the fan-grabbing tour it deserves. At least not yet, anyway.
Peach Pit was slated to play Midway April 25. If you find that news heartbreaking don’t worry, You And Your Friends is the perfect antidote.