Over five years on from their debut E.P. Ep1, Chappaqua Wrestling’s debut could legitimately be described with that sometimes overused term ‘long awaited’; the journey taking lead songwriters Charlie Woods and Jake Mac via a number of singles released digitally, including the album’s opener ‘Full Round Table’, which immediately sets out their manifesto of addressing 2023 issues, (“You and me both need a new direction/In 15 years will our wages change?”), marrying social commentary with big, big tunes in the proudest traditions of the likes of The Clash or The Smiths.
Those tunes, though, are a glorious hybrid of their creators’ shoegaze sensibilities and archetypal ‘indie anthems’, avoiding cliche but still managing many examples of the stadium-sized chorus; it’s not difficult to imagine a festival choir singing ‘Wayfinding’s “Don’t say that your life ain’t turning round” refrain.
‘Kulture’ deals with tokenism, namely the appropriation of culture for commercial purposes, (“They only need your culture when they need you”), while ‘Need You No More’ is a more straightforward stomp reminiscent of The Courteeners. There’s a change of mood with the low-key beginning of ‘Wide Asleep’, which builds into a Ride-style wall of sound and is the album’s standout track.
The band apparently grew up on a diet of shoegaze, Creation bands and The Beach Boys, the former being most apparent on ‘Fair Game’, which could neatly fit into the nu-gaze world of the likes of Nothing or Whirr. Despite the band’s influences, which they happily state, there’s enough here to illustrate that they have their own sound, drawing the best bits from the music that they love without ever becoming copycats. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine any of these songs becoming singles (or maybe if they had been around a few years earlier they’d be hits!)
‘Can I Trick’ ends the record on a nicely understated note, but even then there are enough hooks in the song for it to find a place in your head, but not before the Oasis-flavoured ‘Opaque’ and the brilliant ‘Not In Love’, which brings in keyboard player/percussionist Coco Varda to provide vocals and another dimension to the band’s sound.
Plus Ultra is a confident and assured debut from a band with plenty of ideas and importantly, they have been able to translate these into a great set of songs.
