C Turtle - Expensive Thrills

It may simply be the choice of track order, but there’s a point around three-quarters of the way through this debut from C Turtle, where it seems as if the outfit decided they were too straightforward thus far, and needed to flip a switch. The synthetic-sounding, sample-using one-two of ‘Shooby’ and ‘Harry Who Knew How To Fly’, the latter with a nursery rhyme type repetition that’s less knowingly discordant and more genuinely annoying, followed by ‘Sniffing The Jesus Hole’, a six-minute sonic wail with seemingly zero context, sit at odds with the rest of ‘Expensive Thrills’, a record which at its best is an enjoyable, fuzzy nod to the band’s ‘90s college rock influences with a little more recent thrown in. Opener ‘Have You Ever Heard A Turtle Sing?’ and its followers, ‘Melvin Said This’ and ‘Ex Athlete’ all brim with a clear love of all things slacker, grunge and indie-rock; think Pavement at their heaviest, or ‘00s noiseniks Cloud Nothings’ early work. ‘Shake It Down’ is, meanwhile, where their formula hits its most potent stride, between Mimi McVeigh’s sarcastic spoken delivery and the guitar squalls, it’s as if Wet Leg were performing a Pixies song. Closer ‘More Insects’ too employs this same formula, the interplay between Mimi and Cole Flynn Quirke’s vocals the group’s apparent touchstone, the stop-start of explosive guitars delivering a frequent sense of unease. If its experimental side appeared less calculated, ‘Expensive Thrills’ could have been a stellar album. As it is, it’s a perfectly fine one.