Greg Brady and the Anchors
I'd Rather Walk
Subjangle
While the rest of the Australian jangle-pop scene has been obsessed with capitalizing on the post-Dick Diver musical landscape with all manner of brilliant dolewave and slacker-pop variants, the Greg Brady and the Anchors corner of Brisbane's pop landscape, has remained resolute in offering something entirely different.
Coined 'Anzac Pop' by the artist, presumably because this blend of spurious, incidental, and downright precious jangly pop music could never really settle in a conventional genre home, Brady's aesthetic would perhaps be more akin to the music released on German labels such as Tapete Records, Marsh Marigold, and Bureau Platiruma!, who seem more natural homes for a jangly pop sound that seems to itch with experimental quirk.
As such, rooted in lucid, jangled riffs, I'd Rather Walk attempts to 'go everywhere' you have never imagined and succeeds with aplomb. Speaks Volumes and the title track are mesmerizing songs that feel like Broadcast have suddenly found the 'just go, will ya?' button, whereas the charity shop-pop and toy town instrumentation tumble and collide within Little Things to have the listener wondering just how it could realistically be conceived?
Although tracks such as Brave, A Pissing Contest, and Searchlight reduce the obtuse to reveal genuinely plaintive and resonating jangly lo-fi, it is the juxtaposition of whirr, fuzz, drone, and twanging jangle-inflected psyche in This Could Work, Don't Go Out In The Cold, and More To Give that moves solidly towards the album's most earworm territories.
After the simply glorious Little Victories album of 2020, I'd Rather Walk shows that jangly obtuse will always have a safe home in the hands of Greg Brady and the Anchors!
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