London-based six-piece
Sports Team managed to generate excitement from their inception. Packing shows as students at Cambridge University, they quickly drew the interest of indie labels like Nice Swan with their muscular guitar hooks and point-blank, chant-along choruses about class division, demagogues, friends who change, friends who won't, and actor Ashton Kutcher. Arriving on Island Records following a couple years' worth of independently released singles and EPs, their debut album,
Deep Down Happy, delivers on the hype. Demanding attention from the start, simultaneous crashing drums, wailing guitar, and a yell (by guitarist
Robb Knaggs) open "Lander," a frustrated rant about needing a job and maybe becoming a doctor or a lawyer -- "So, arthritis probably doesn't matter a lot/I've been thinking a little bit about that sort of thing." Alternating a raised voice over chugging, melodic guitars and bass with quieter passages that keep the syncopated rock groove going, the song's instruments carry rambling thoughts through to inevitable death ("wearing your nicest clothes"). There's no letdown from there, with the sleeker, spikier "Here It Comes Again" blowing by in two-and-a-quarter minutes. It's the second of 12 tracks in all that average three minutes apiece. Ear-snagging intros are another feature here, most notably on "Feels Like Fun," whose simple, two-chord dissonance makes it identifiable within seconds. A highlight among potential radio anthems is "Here's the Thing," an irresistibly catchy, takes-no-prisoners diatribe against the establishment: "If your parents worked to earn it then it's yours/(Here's the thing) And If you're barely getting by then that's your fault/(Here's the thing) Everything in life is fair and that's the rules/It's all just lies, lies, lies, lies...." Despite aggravated lyrics like these, the tone of
Deep Down Happy is irreverent and fun, with rhymes like "friends" and "Thames" and "Thumblands" and "old bands," and lead singer Alex Rice's implied raised eyebrow keeping things in a playful zone. The album's length is just about right, going by in an efficient 36 minutes but feeling satisfying at the end, and while fans are bound to pick favorites, there's not a real dud in the bunch. ~ Marcy Donelson