U.S. Highball - Great Record - VINYL LP

Benny Trokan - Do You Still Think Of Me [VINYL LP] date 08/23/2024

Some bands reveal themselves immediately, coming right out and winning the listener over the moment they hit play. And then there are bands that open up with time, rewarding repeat listens with new lyrical and musical thrills on every return. Glaswegian jangle pop extraordinaires U.S. Highball have the rare distinction of being both. The duo specialize in the kind of instantly charming songwriting that makes a great first impression, and an even better second, third, and beyond. Their songs are equal parts wit and heart, full of pop culture nods, inside jokes, and hooks upon hooks. Now U.S. Highball's third full-length, A Parkhead Cross of The Mind, leans even further into their unique dichotomy, offering another goldmine of discovery set to their finest batch of pop gems to date. Made up of James Hindle and Calvin Halliday, U.S. Highball is the result of a 17-year friendship. Upon meeting in 2005, the two quickly bonded over their overlapping musical interests, and when their previous group, The Pooches, began to fizzle, they soon found a new creative chemistry working as a duo. InchWe have pretty much identical tastes in music, and culture in general, so we were both on the same page as to what we wanted the band to sound like,Inch Hindle explains. InchIt's like having all the fun parts of being in a band, without any of the hassle!Inch The prolific songwriters released their debut LP as U.S. Highball, Great Record, in 2019, and quickly followed it with 2020's Up To High Doh. When crafting A Parkhead Cross of The Mind, U.S. Highball set out to make a louder, punchier version of their sound without sacrificing the idiosyncratic charm of their previous releases. They upgraded their gear and home recording setup and got to work, whittling down 40 potential songs to 12, which were then meticulously honed. InchWe definitely prefer to record at home,Inch says Hindle. Inch

No Thievery, Just Cool is the fourth album in as many years from Glaswegian jangle-pop outfit U.S. Highball, comprised of lifelong friends Calvin Halliday and James Hindle.This time around, the boys decided to put the neighbourhood to work, enlisting a host of friends and external collaborators to beef up their characteristically propulsive pop nuggets. Jacob Ewald - frontman of recent tourmates Slaughter Beach, Dog - duets with James on a soaring version of The Mr. T Experience's Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer, and Manda Rin - one third of Glasgow indie legends Bis - lends her trademark emphatic yelp to the effervescent Tiny Partick. On album closer Out of Time, Aussie stalwarts Darren Hanlon and Shelley Short provide sun-soaked harmonies that elevate the song's ruminative coda to something transcendent, while Joe Howe - typically known to traffic in jittery electronics - unleashes a rousing saxophone solo slap-bang in the middle of Paris 2019.The record was masterfully mixed by Melbourne-based legend-in-the-making Snowy - best known for his work with The Ocean Party and Ciggie Witch - whose ardent ear for detail helped breath fresh life into the songs during the mixing process, bringing out the best in Halliday and Hindle's unorthodox arrangements. Mastering duties were handled once again by Ian Farmer - also of Slaughter Beach, Dog - further cementing his status as the band's de-facto third member.As ever, U.S. Highball have fashioned a densely-populated lyrical world that's at once surrealistic and chock-full of kitchen sink detail, with songs frantically ushering the listener from Buchanan Street to Boulevard Saint-Michel in the space of a single hook-stuffed chorus. Irresponsible Holiday - arguably the album's most urgent earworm - revels in the workaday minutiae of office life, the aforementioned Paris 2019 alludes to brushing up against overly-opinionated stra