The History of Apple Pie - Out of View

It is now common courtesy for the music industry to conjure at least one new artist per year that adheres to the whole Best Coast/Cults cute-girl vocal over lo-fi indie pop angle. It should be common courtesy that such ventures are executed with clever, or catchy, or in the very least intriguing results. What made Asobi Seksu and Cults and Best Coast's debuts (or sophomore, in the case of AS) so engaging were their takes on garage, Motown and surf-rock respectively, and all of them being from the US may have at least exposed them to such varied sounds early on. But for UK band The History of Apple Pie - and yes, it is an awful band name - British indie rock classics are pretty hard to come by.

I discovered the band by accident: they were the iTunes free single of the week a while back. The London fivesome are as close to the dreampop line as it is possible to tread, and given all of these minor complaints you'd be forgiven for thinking I had something against them. They look nice, they sound nice, and that free song (See You) was excellent. So what is it about them that prevents me from loving it all? It may simply be a lack of originality.

From the very start on 'Tug', singer and co-songwriter Stephanie Min makes it clear that she's happy to sit incoherently in the background and let other co-songwriter Jerome Watson blow everyone away with some fine, but slightly typical guitarwork. It's pretty, but unsubstantial, and is devastatingly exposed as such when followed by the magnificence of 'See You'. Even from its initial electronic rills it's just hammering out hooks and cuteness and euphoria, whilst its bittersweet lyrics ("I've got so much left to give/ and I miss you") delivered calmly certify its cool credentials. It's followed by the equally joyous 'Mallory' and its feelgood riffs. Beneath that, though? The vaguest mutters of vocals and some carefree "ooh"s.

And that's Out of View's biggest flaw. Under all of the bluster and inoffensive tunes there's a problem with depth: 'The Warrior' and 'Glitch' sort-of merge into the same song for me with their bold attempts at a drum-loop here or ghostly vocals there, and both struggle to keep alive in your head after they've ended. Every so often they strike gold and get that killer riff - like that of 'You're so Cool' - and the side-effect is more than distracting; it's wonderful. 'I Want More' has the lucky benefit of having come on when scrolling past this dude:

So I can't really find fault with it (in addition, at 5 and a half minutes it's a little more experimental and interesting than anything else on OOV but let's just put it all down to alien GIFs). Even on the brief 'Do It Wrong', Min sounds like the female answer to Liam Gallagher's commanding, britpop whine, and it's an allusion that's now stuck in my head. There's even a slight glimpse of the band willing to drop all the noise and hubbub, on 'Long Way to Go', arguably the album's misnomer. Unfortunately they end with the unclear and generic 'Before You Reach the End' ("I'll take you away from here", Min promises, with predictable frontwoman-being-suggestive tedium).

All of the components are there for an enjoyable album, and for some, this may be the first record they discover that ticks all of its lo-fi, post-Britpop boxes. I can say with some level of certainty though that it's also a record that'll fall down the back of the musical sofa. It's warm and nice enough to at least make it onto the beloved sofa, but it's just not that special, unfortunately.

Rating: 6/10
Highlights: See You; You're So Cool; Mallory; Do it Wrong; Long Way to Go
Avoid: Before You Reach the End; Glitch; The Warrior

Artwork Watch: What with the other photos and the band name, you can't help but speculate whether this is a Fast Food Rockers sideproject.
For fans of: Yuck; The Go! Team; Asobi Seksu
Up next: Bastille