Snotty-nosed, scuzzed-up punk is how Let’s Wrestle was described when the band first emerged in 2008. They had a sound that their press team admits made it hard to imagine them lasting five weeks, let alone five years.
And yet they’re about to release their third, self-titled album, which to me is less scuzzy punk and more London troubadour via Newquay. It’s twangy, surf-rock with an introspective, heartfelt edge. Not your run-of-the-mill combination.
Named after a book by David Shrigley, Let’s Wrestle was formed by Wesley Patrick Gonzalez on guitar and vocals, Darkus Bishop on drums and Mike Lightning on bass. They recorded their first two albums with that line-up before Mike left and was replaced by Sam Pillay (who left after the recording of the new album to focus on his band, Virginia Wing).
The third album also saw the addition of Max Claps of The Proper Ornaments on guitar, and there are guest appearances by Darren Hayman on B Bender guitar, Meilyr Jones from Racehorses on organ and Max Bloom from Yuck on trumpet.
Citing the psych-pop pioneers of the 1960s and Laurel Canyon cowboys of the 1970s as influences, the album does have a sun-shiney feel despite being born out of dank old London. In fact, the lyrics are often at odds with the music, which is mostly chirpy and in juxtaposition to inward-looking, emotional lines like ‘I thought to myself, I’ve got nothing to do with me’.
The songs are also apparently an open account of Gonzalez’s life, and on closer listen, they do have a sense of transition from boy to man about them, more so when you consider that their two previous albums, In the Court of Wrestling Lets (2009) and Nursing Home (2011), were written when he was still in his teens.
I like the local references woven into the lyrics, which give the songs an instant nostalgia, like in Codeine and Marshmallows, referencing the Queensbridge Road in Hackney (and for the record, apparently they have an after taste of sick, blood and loneliness). It gives them a time and a place, what’s been described as evoking feeling through location.
Best tracks on the album for me are Don’t Want to Know Your Name, which has a great little strings and brass build-up in the middle. In fact, the odd bit of orchestration is scattered throughout the album, giving the album an interesting lift. Wrexham Aluminium, one of the more gloomy tracks on the album (‘Your girlfriend’s been crying…’), and Irish Sea (I shot a bird out of a tree, It was an accident, but you didn’t see) are also stand outs. Second track I Am Fond of You has echoes of The Shins’ circa Chutes Too Narrow, and there’s a sweet duet with Roxanne Clifford of Veronica Falls in Pull Through for You.
In my opinion there’s nothing terribly ground-breaking here, but it’s a charming, pleasant listen, and I do think Gonzalez is a talented lyricist. It’s a nice album of sensitive songs that belies their teenage-boy name.
6.5/10
by Patricia Turk
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