3/5 stars
Alpine have never had issues standing out. Not only did their breakout sound invite definition beyond the immediate indie rock spectrum, it came with an accessibility that belied their genre-defiant nature and resulted in some of the more interesting music to rise out of Melbourne at the time, from their maiden EP Zurich to 2012 debut album A Is For Alpine.
A similar promise is shown on Yuck – indeed, if the rest of the tracklist bore similarity to ‘Foolish’, that promise would be kept. The song is a phenomenal work, with French pop strings and Nile Rodgers chord inversions on chirpy nylon guitar. It’s surrounded by the lush ‘Come On’ and the hypnotically bouncy ‘Crunches’, which charm in their own respect.
We then hit a slump that’s all light programming and heavy vocals, wherein the four other members of the band besides Phoebe Baker and Lou James begin to seem like subtext rather than a primary element. It feels like a deep exploration into a corner of their sound where there is relatively little to be found, and yet it’s bafflingly pursued.
It’d be childish to dismiss Yuck purely by using its title. All that should be said is that Alpine are capable of a lot better.
David James Young
Alpine’s Yuck is available through Ivy League.
