If you’re a regular reader of this site, you may well know how I feel about this band. They’re from the same town as me and one of them is my friend’s big brother so there’s a little sense of ‘local band comes good’ when listening to the new Copy Haho release, although I don’t know how attached they feel to the lovely little fishing town of Stonehaven nowadays.
Bias aside, Christ this EP is good. It begins with the punchy ‘Pulling Push Ups’, which combines, as normal, interesting chord changes with wandering guitar hooks. ‘This Retro Decade’ continues in this vein, with more emphasis on what I can sense is the lyrical theme, a sense of yearning, and willingness to improve in post-teen years:
“I’m not happy living stupid but I’m struggling to change”
A new version of ‘Cutting Out The Bad’ follows, a version which I interpret to be more explorative with guitar parts and the bass line, which slithers to compliment the equally impressive drum sound. There’s a cello in there, an inspired addition to an already stellar song.
‘Bad Blood’ is a newer song, which also seems to deal with wanting to improve ones circumstances. The organ sound and crunchy rhythm guitar will ring bells with Pavement fans. In fact, imagine a Scottish Pavement with extra-meaningful vocals and small town frustrations and you’ve got a very exciting sound.
Finishing song, ‘The Last Dash’, sums up the band better than I could at this point. There’s those confident vocals with nervous lyrics (a very Scottish irony), guitar hooks, even an organ breakdown reminiscent of the Beach Boys! There’s a band from Stonehaven who’ve done something that sounds a bit like the Beach Boys! Fuckin’ hell…
These are very exciting times for the 4-piece. This EP is relatively short (as EPs tend to be, obviously…) but in the small amount of time it takes to listen to ‘Bred For Skills and Magic’, you can see how much Copy Haho care about their music, about how much time they take over it.
I don’t care if this is a kiss-arse review, this EP is brilliant.