Airship - Kids

Following on from their debut, 2010’s ‘Algebra’ EP released on Love and Disaster, Glossop’s Airship have been hard at work on a whole album’s worth of new material, rumoured to drop sometime later this year. To whet music heads’ appetites in the meantime, they are releasing the song ‘Kids’.

It could be argued that the band took a great risk as well as a leap of faith by christening this first single with the same name as MGMT’s 2008 breakout hit. Fortunately, Airship’s ‘Kids’ sounds nothing like the one proferred by the New York psych rockers. This track has an instant likability: heavy enough to be classed as rock but at the same time, so terribly melodic that it almost feels like a pop guilty pleasure.

Driving bass and drums propel this song forward with intensity from the very start. The guitar, wailing away, gets a nice, albeit brief, turn in the spotlight during the bridge but its main purpose in ‘Kids’ is to add volume - both literally and figuratively - to the backing instrumentation. Elliott Williams sings the words, “remember when we were younger? / we grew up / life was but a dream / when we had it all”, the lyrics wistful, a look back at his past with what he knows now. Growing up is hard to do. And Airship have done a good job distilling both childhood and adult angst into a song that will get your toes tapping.

And let’s go back to that rhythm section. The bass and drums are so relentless, you can practically feel yourself flying. Just a suggestion: hang on for the ride, because this Airship is about to take off.