Guards - Guards

Pop. Wave. Doom. The three words Richie Follin uses to describe his side project Guards. Dipping into the murky waters of Wavves, the empty paint pots of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the chipped ashtrays of The Kills, Guards emerge with a blueprint for moody beach pop. Straying from extreme blurry distortion at one end of the scale to stripped back laziness at the other, they employ changes of pace and volume to add variety to the EP.

Opener ‘Resolution Of One’ immediately showcases Follin’s lyrical talent, set to a backdrop of hazy guitars and pointy organ tones, ever-present accompaniments throughout the EP. After an anthemic, slow-burning start Follin creates a brooding and atmospheric third track, ‘Sail It Slow’, with the help of Cults. Next, the fun and poppy ‘Don’t Wake The Dead’ channels Karen O, the fast pace crumbling into a malaise of thoughtful, contemplative songs. The marching band dynamics and almost festive bells of final track ‘I See It Coming’ builds into a fantastical and revelatory finale, even including the “Ah-oh-oh, ah-oh-woah” of an unimaginably sincere Kings Of Leon.

Guards’ main strength is avoiding falling into the same rut of samey-ness that most of their beach-partying peers occupy, and it seems like Follin constantly tries to push his vocals, lyrics and sound into new and exciting places, without ever losing it to inconsistency or self-indulgence. A very promising debut all in all, but not without a couple of skippable tracks. If Follin can recapture the glories of the EP’s peaks he could easily be the first king of “pop wave doom”.