Bleached - Welcome The Worms

Like a cross between 80s US TV imports and Douglas Coupland’s ‘Generation X’ (or just SS16 at Forever 21 just with a ton more hairspray for younger readers), Bleached are pretty damn good at evoking a specific image of California. Like 2013 debut ‘Ride Your Heart’, ‘Welcome The Worms’ and its not-quite-punk fuzz is pure #aesthetic, the trio themselves the leather jacket-clad bad girls those show’s protagonists are warned to steer clear of.

At once brassy, bold, introspective and angsty, it’s a sun-washed take on ‘77 punk that could only have been recorded post-90s pop-punk. So there’s opener ‘Keep On Keeping On’ that’s the Ramones filtered through Debbie Harry’s 80s solo records and standout ‘Sour Candy’ owing much to ‘Teenage Kicks’ alongside the Weezer-esque ‘Wednesday Night Melody’ and Best Coast-a-like ‘Wasted On You’.

It’s a shame, then, that it repeatedly fades in to one, hazy, vaguely rock mass. ‘Desolate Town’ might be a little heavier than the rest, but all too often ‘Welcome The Worms’ lacks the bite that’d make it Very Good Indeed.