Album Review: The Trouble With Templeton - Rookie

The debut, full-length record from this Brisbane quintet has an authority and a darkness that haunts the whole cut. Full of snappy mood swings, the atmosphere ranges from the eerie “ooo”s of the backing vocals to upbeat electric guitar riffs, all undercut with frontman Thomas Calder's vocals, which even on a jaunty track are clouded with intensity.

The previously-released single, Like A Kid, is seriously addictive. The most pop-rock, anthemic track on the record it begins with a monster-child yelling, “NO -nonononononono!” before the cymbal and angst-fuelled guitar riff drops with a catchy beat and a series of hooks and motifs that keep you glued to the stereo.

I Recorded You is a bit of a Radiohead tribute, incorporating the self-berating moments from Creep and swelling with wall-of-sound build-ups and acoustic releases, while Secret Pastures is the gentlest track, melancholic and whispered as if sincerely hush-hush.

The Trouble With Templeton aren't conforming to any indie-rock prerequisites and while the music is layered and mature, it's almost like Calder is dabbling in the nightmares of childhood. His sometimes powerful, always delicate vocals are full of wry, destabilising lyrics like “the operation went well and I believe in you/But I still can't tell which part they removed” on Flowers.

Final track, Lint, is the album highlight, decorated with distortion, ringing ambience and syncopated snares. Coupled with elongated, falsetto vocals and prominent bass drum, the final build is very Sigur Ros-y. The song collapses into silence before an ethereal half-minute wait is interrupted by a short folk reprise – a wonky ending to a delightfully unpredictable record.

Equally fuelled by dissonance and shivers as by soaring melodies and handclaps, Rookie wrenches alt.rock from its indie daydream and tosses it into a well-informed blend that make the kids look more like the connoisseur than the novice.