The Barlights / You Cannot Choose The Roads You Take Home

The Barlights
You Cannot Choose The Roads You Take Home
(NRONE)

Swiss post punk. Belgian late ‘70s cold wave. These are just some of the destinations current groups are heading to in search of that elusive cool inspiration. Meanwhile, this second LP from Norwich’s The Barlight’s isn’t going anywhere exotic and doesn’t care about being cool much either – but it’s still a pretty great place to be.
And that place is (wait for it…) an indie disco in the 1990s! Because this record just oozes with the kind of passionate, big hearted indie typified by the likes of Wonderstuff, James and Longpigs – those critically discarded groups that we all know you really liked for a while.
The opening song ‘Curtains’ introduces itself in this vein, with cowpunk robustness married to arena rock ambience. Later on you get the feeling that ‘Living With Ghosts’ could easily provoke an outbreak of the ‘drunken indie sway’, with its lovelorn lyrics and anthemic hug-your-mate melodies.
‘A Good Night’s Sleep’ is simply a great song, with Graham Horne’s honey-warm voice complimenting the melancholy tune perfectly, while ‘Wait For It To Die’ recalls Suede with its dying swan atmosphere and unselfconscious passion.
Cool influences are, well, cool of course – but Barlights have at least got one thing right: the emotion in their music is as refreshing as a pint.