Charlie Boyer And The Voyeurs – Clarietta

With a debut single as buzz inducing as ‘I Watch You’, Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs were always going to have to produce a pretty special album to meet the lofty expectations laid upon them. They showed they could deliver the goods with the infectious psych-rock of follow-up single and album opener ‘Things We Be’ and, as it turns out, these tracks were just telling of the mastery Boyer et al. have had hidden up their vintage shop-embellished sleeves.

Having already drawn endless comparisons to Television and Heavenly labelmates TOY – perhaps a slightly lazy relation - there is admittedly something very ‘70s New York proto-punk about ‘Clarietta’, no doubt helped along by Boyer’s self-confessed love of The Velvet Underground. ‘I’ve Got A River’ opens with the distinctive, tight-toned pulse of guitar before being swept up into an all-encompassing scuzz and a vocal that could easily be mistaken for Tom Verlaine’s own. And that influence only weaves its way in further as the album progresses. See the circling arrangement of ‘You Haven’t Got A Chance’ and the perfected yelp of title track ‘Clarietta’. Yet there’s modernity to these songs that give them that extra bite. These boys know how to structure a song: big verses, even bigger choruses and a raucous instrumental.

Occasionally slowing the pace a bit, takes like ‘A Lion’s Way’ and ‘The Central Tonne’ allow for Boyer’s yowling to soar through the surrounding noise of the rest of The Voyeurs. Though this is often only momentarily: the guitars soon creep back in to reclaim their role as the jagged pulse parading the tracks along. But that’s what makes this album so profound: it rarely breaks for energy. And for all its unoriginality, ‘Clarietta’ more than makes amends with the proficient psychedelia of its groove-based jams. It’s dripping with ‘70s New York glam rock nostalgia, just by way of a run-down London joint - and a brief jaunt back to the Britpop foray - instead.