Feverish

Album review

Like a Turner painting, Pure's Generation Six-Pack was an album painted in swirling atmospherics, shoegazing clouds hovering over the set, and melodies looming through the blurred guitars, while islands of rock suddenly veered up in the mists. Their follow-up, Feverish, however, was a Pollock canvas, vigorously splashed with bright, primary colors and packed with vitality and energy. That's evident from the outset, as the band launch into "Chocolate Bar," a heavy hitting rocker fired up by its jungly rhythm. Pure have turned up the heat and kicked up the sound, and no more so than on the exhilarating "Tennis Ball (Prescribing Tristen)," a song that swings exuberantly between Pavement styled alt rock madness and a bubbly synth supported chorus. But it's the bits in the song's middle, all straight out rocking contra-pointed by slide guitar, that seriously set the song bouncing. Pure used sliding guitar notes to interesting effect on their previous set, but now it predominates. It gives the title track a further twist on its shoegazey nod to the '70s Rolling Stones, brightens the hard rock edges of "Palm Springs," slides straight into the sea and R&B on the Eastern tinged "My Surfboard and My Dog," and gives the infectious "Sunshine and Happy Hour" its country twang. As always, the band continue to put paid to their name, best of all on the "March of the Loonies," a clap-along glam stomper that boasts both acoustic guitars and an anthemic chorus reminiscent of "Don't Worry Be Happy." Nevertheless, Feverish also features just enough swirl-pop to still bemist their shoegazing fans, plenty of introspective lyrics keep the indie crowd enthralled, and a big, big sound to satisfy the rockers. Yet for all its extremes -- from the down and dirty hard Southern rockin' "Truck, Campers & Trees" to the languid and lush beauty of "Pay Your Way," the set is full of Pure delight.

© Dave Thompson /TiVo