Fresh from appearing on seemingly every publication’s (including this one) ‘ones to watch in 2025’ list, all based on a clutch of singles and an infinitely entertaining live show, Welly have gone early in the year with their long awaited debut long player.
And long is the operative word, it is a hefty one, weighing in at 14 tracks over 48 or so minutes, something of an anomaly these days, as is the refreshing notion that, as they have built up such a canon of singles already, Welly have decided to put the majority of them on there, which makes sense, especially as they make up the bulk of their live set, why wouldn’t you put your best stuff on your debut, even though most acts recently have used their first record as a reason to bin it all off and start from scratch.
And it’s with two of those that we kick off proceedings, the title track and very early single ‘Home For The Weekend’, as the first words of the album set up what we are going to get here, “now for a moment of light entertainment”. There’s no pomp or ceremony here, they are going straight for the indie-pop jugular.
I’ll get the obvious Britpop comparisons over with here, it feels like it owes it’s very existence to that era, and it’s such welcome throwback to those days, without it feeling in the slightest bit retro, they feel like they know exactly what they are doing, and who they are doing it for, there’s knowing nods thrown on the likes of ‘Pampas Grass‘, with it’s ‘Girls And Boys‘ vibe, they are very much a Blur rather than Oasis (thankfully), each song feels like an individual mini-drama with the stories they tell.
In fact, at times, with their simple bargain-basement production values (there’s soooo much cowbell) and use of samples, they are more of a Carter USM for the Temu generation.
‘Deere John‘ is a joyous shout-along, and starts a run of previously released tracks, which heard one straight after the other feels like a greatest hits already. It’s such a, for want of a better word, fun record where each and every one of the tracks could be a single (possibly with the exception of the frankly weird ‘Under Milk Wood’).
Following on from such bastions of popular music such as Toyah and Jamiroquai, Welly is both the singers name as well the name of the band, but it feels nothing like a vanity project, with band members popping up vocally throughout the album, adding layers where every song is a jigsaw, with that bit sounding like something, now that bit sounds like something completely different, for example, the early 80’s feel, that you can’t quite put your finger on of the galloping ‘The Roundabout Races‘, but it all works in it’s own ramshackle way.
Of the tunes that haven’t already seen the light of day, ‘Family Photos‘ is the most striking of all, it sounds a grown-up version of Welly, as they lose the throw everything at it vibe and slow it down slightly, employing a Smiths-y guitar jangle for its almost 6 minutes. These days, there are not many albums that are screaming to have 14 tracks on them, especially not a debut, but this is not an issue, in fact it still manages to feel a bit short the nearer the end it gets.
At the risk of sounding ridiculous at what i said at the beginning, I fear (and I really hope I’m wrong) that they are too jolly and glorious to hit the mainstream, which seems to gets more miserable every year. If that turns out to be the case, then so be it, they will just become one of those truly great, but highly secret bands (such as Art Brut, Sultans Of Ping etc) that will be mean so much to not many. This is the musical equivalent of eating three big Twix’s. with a two litre bottle of Cherry Coke, it’s not going to sustain you for days, but the rush you get from it is instant and sizeable.
To badly paraphrase Public Enemy, do believe the hype. There’s a joie de vivre here that is to be worshipped and enjoyed, and an excellent album to boot (sorry).
Big In The Summer is released on 21st March through The Vertex.
