Album Review: Bleeding Knees Club - Chew The Gum

Bleeding Knees Club sound like the type of band who wear ripped jeans and don't know what hairdressers look like.

The four-piece specialise in songs that involve a few chords, catchy riffs and killer hooks. In other words, their approach is simple and dumb - and a whole lot of fun. The band are at their best when they pair a basic musical idea with a clearly defined emotion. When they do, it's pop-punk at its best.

Songs like the title track and Sick Feeling double down on this method, as the screeching guitars drip with disdain. You can hear the sneer in Alex Wall's voice as he sings, the vowel sounds stretched out into glorious new permutations. Sun House is a similarly focused effort, matching surf-rock with sentimental lyrics about starry-eyed dreamers and hot summer nights, complete with a saccharine glockenspiel melody.

However, the band run into uneasy waters when they stray too far from simplicity. Cyber Doom struggles beneath the weight of its scattered imagery and, as a result, sounds less like the contrarian statement they might have intended it to be and more like a vague whinge about technology.

Nonetheless, judging by this EP there's no sense that this band will run out of steam, or targets to direct their energy towards, any time soon.