Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls

Gig buddy Holly and I saw Veronica Falls play a rooftop show recently. She turned and said “I don’t get it, you’re young, in a band, look great, are playing a cool venue, got a guitar strapped on and everyone’s paying rapt attention. If that was me I wouldn’t be looking at the floor all coy and bashful, I wouldn’t giggle nervously. I’d be loving it, I’d be full of brash confidence, I’d be staring this crowd in the eye. Jesus, I’d be Chrissie Hynde, I’d be a proper goddamn rock star.”

We didn’t quite agree - there were no high-fives - but, it has to be said, a similar feeling does tip-toe through this record. Make no mistake, it’s a cracking, crackling debut which at it’s best reminds just what a thrilling, invigorating world indie-pop can be. It’s just that a bit too often you wish they’d throw themselves about a touch more, bloody their noses, graze their knees, show us their bruises, really commit to the moment.

Take ‘Found Love In The Graveyard’; OK, this isn’t meant to be a literal romp amongst the tombstones, but the foreboding air at the start promises a prime opportunity for some lupine lust or Nosferatu inspired naughtiness, it quickly dies away though. Instead what we’re left with sounds more like the Mystery, Inc. gang getting chased around to a Josie and the Pussycats’ pophit. Which, obviously, is a total blast, and obviously makes you smile’n’dance, but it doesn’t give much of an insight into what gets these pesky kids’ hearts beating. Of course blast songs are great, but they’re not the ones that get under your skin, that become the soundtrack to the bits of your life that really matter.

‘Wedding Day’ though glows with an insouciant swagger and the sweet kiss-off ‘You don’t look at her, like you’re looking at me’ is exactly the kind of bolshy self-confidence we want from them, that lets us know there‘s real spirit at play here. ‘Veronica Falls’, meanwhile, slows the tempo, demonstrates a deft versatility and finds a gently alluring connection in the soft repetition of the chorus.

Influence wise it’s hard to look far beyond stalwarts like Heavenly with cute nods to the surf-rock business of The Pixies; a potent combo right? It works best on album highlight ‘Come On Over’; given at least a minute longer to develop than almost every other track, it ebbs, flows and then builds into a strutting beast of a song, the sort of driving indie-pop that makes you fall for this scuffed-up Converse world all over again. This is where we need to find Veronica Falls; they show us their hearts and in return we give them a big bit of ours. That ‘Come On Over’ is the last song on the album seems appropriate, it hints at what’s to come, at future greatness.