'Never Going Under' by Circa Waves
While Circa Waves has been making steady progress up the U.K. charts since the release of its first album, Young Chasers, in 2015, the Liverpool indie-rock quartet is some distance from being even a cult sensation elsewhere. Its fifth album, Never Going Under, isn’t destined to change that, but its accessibility gives it a good chance.
The production, handled by primary songwriter and lead singer Kieran Shudall, opens up the sound without pandering, and the title track starts off the record with a medium tempo, Sam Rourke’s buzzing bassline, and just enough bite to grab the ear without breaking the skin.
Vocally, Shudall has the pop-folk drive of the Waterboys’ Mike Scott, with similar adolescent excitability if a lot less vibrato, but he also has some of the mellow, mature vulnerability of Americana expatriate Josh Rouse. That range, technically modest yet emotionally wide, in turn expands the range of the songs.
Not unlike a few other contemporary modern-rock bands, Circa Waves lifts a few sonic fingerprints from the 1980s: the synth artifice of “Northern Town” evokes (perhaps deliberately) the Dream Academy’s 1985 hit “Life in a Northern Town,” the crunch of “Electric City” echoes the Cars’ high commercial point, and the funk throb of “Hold On” hints at Hall and Oates.
Still, with help from Rourke, lead guitarist Joe Falconer, and drummer Colin Jones, Shudall gives the band a pop-rock identity that blends rather than relies upon its influences, and tracks like the brightly yearning “Your Ghost” and the equally bright, rueful “Want It All Today” would distinguish themselves on a Top 40 playlist.
Never Going Under saves the deepest track for the finale: “Living in the Grey” lets Shudall contemplate the boy he used to be, the man he is today, and a life that can’t be black and white. It’s catchy, thoughtful, and maybe a breakout for a band from a town famous for breakouts.
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